


Coffee and Mustard

by xNewPerspectivex



Category: Undertale
Genre: CEO AU, F/M, Maybe a Songfic idk, Slight!Underfell!Sans, Underfell Sans, idk what this is tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-11 06:31:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16470518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xNewPerspectivex/pseuds/xNewPerspectivex
Summary: Frisk works hard to achieve what she wants in life. When a CEO is thrown into a small diner with business plans, she is polite at first - but then some unexpected things happen, leading to tension. Can the relationship be fixed? And possibly progress into more of a friendship?(Want to know what song I'm basing this off of slightly? Look up Coffee by BTS)





	1. Under New Management

Winter in the city seems to always get worse with every passing year, according to Frisk who has lived in the city for the last twenty-two years. She’s lived here her entire life, and every time she complains about it, people ask her why she doesn’t move to the southern part of their country – where it’s still a warm seventy degrees, whereas in the city it was a bristling forty-five degrees. And while she did love autumn, and the cooler temperatures that it brought, she would rather that it creeped in – not be instantly cold at the snap of mother nature’s fingers.

However, after all is said and done, Frisk doesn’t think that she would be able to move away if she could. Her mother resided in the downtown part of the city, and her friends were scattered about it as well – some even moved to the West coast of the country, but for the most part they all stayed in the city. The grimy place that they grew up in had changed over the years, or at least Frisk thought, perhaps it wasn’t the city that changed but rather she just grew up and realized what had been around her for her entire life.

Drugs, prostitution, gang wars, and police brutality littered the streets that Frisk once thought were pristine and happy. She never realized what evil had lingered on them when she was younger. However, now that monsters had come to the surface, it seems that it has only gotten worse as discrimination was now at an all-time high. And while it was 2018, there was still that lingering racism much like aftertaste of a bitter coffee. But, when she could, she would stand up for the monsters that were politer than the humans that inhabited the city. Her mother and late father had raised her to be as welcoming to others as she could be, as long as she didn’t do anything stupid to get herself hurt.

And she lived by that philosophy as best as she could – however, there were some people that could be an exception to that little philosophy. And those people were the rich bastards that gorged in their high-end apartments, feasting on food that most people in the city wish they could just see by their own eyes for the first time. They didn’t realize how good they had it, and they probably never will with their noses high in the air as they would glare at Frisk and her friends who were happy to have found a discounted item that would normally cost twice the amount they paid for. Frisk would usually be polite towards them, until they would say some snide comment that would result in her two best friends dragging her away before she could get an assault charge on her record.

Frisk sighed as her eyes opened and she took in the sight of her small bedroom, that was situated in a cheap neighborhood where the rent wasn’t too expensive. Frisk managed to balance her rent, bills, and grocery costs on a thin blade as she worked at a diner a couple blocks away from her apartment. It was a simple mom and pop shop that had attracted a small customer base, and in its own right – it was popular in the city. Frisk was a favorite among the patrons that frequented the diner, Shelly’s, resulting in her gathering huge tips from time to time from folks that probably shouldn’t be tipping her as much as they do. Sometimes the tips would go towards bills or groceries, but most of the time it would go towards the people that might need it a little bit more than she did.

Speaking on work, Frisk was supposed to be there in a couple of hours since she was taking on a few extra shifts to try to take some online classes at a one of the community colleges that the city had to offer. She was at least getting her basics before deciding on her degree, as a lot of various majors and degrees appealed to her in some way or another. She swung her feet over the edge of her queen sized mattress which took up seventy-five percent of the small bedroom – which she wasn’t complaining, all she had to do after work was just walk straight to bed and she would land somewhere on the comfortable thing.

She sat up, running a hand through her messy, short brown hair – her hazel eyes scouring her bedroom as she was looking for her uniform. She seen it on the floor at the edge of her bed and mentally cursed at herself, as her floor wasn’t the cleanest at the moment. With so many shifts that she had been pulling, she hasn’t had time to clean the small apartment. Hurriedly, she grabbed the uniform from the wooden floor and let out a sharp hiss as her bare feet met with the cold floor. She went into the living room-slash-kitchen area and pulled out one of the mismatched chairs from the breakfast table that was sitting by the large window that had a skyline view. She neatly laid out her uniform before grabbing a Febreze fabric spray that she had for her couch whenever her friends would smoke in her apartment.

She sprayed it onto the uniform, a smile crossing her face as the fresh smell hit her nose. In a way, it reminded her of home when her and her family lived out in the country part of the city before they moved closer in after Frisk’s father died – resulting in her mother pulling odd jobs to provide for her and Frisk until Frisk was sixteen and could get a job herself. Frisk moved over to the kitchen, spotting her apron on the small bar that was connected to her sink – her name tag clasped to it tightly. Frisk sighed as she moved to the linen cabinet she had in the hallway going towards the bathroom, pulling out a towel and some other necessities she would need to take a shower while her uniform air dried briefly. 

She was hoping that the morning to lunch shift would pass quickly, as nothing really happened in the mornings at where she worked at – it mostly got busy closer to dinner time, which sort of gave her a small break of sorts. Mornings were uneventful, right?  
________________________________________  
Frisk pulled her coat towards her body tightly as she was dressed in her work uniform – heading to work. A white button up shirt with a black vest and a black skirt to match that reached just above her knees. She also was wearing some red high heels and a white apron tied neatly at her waist as she dodged in and out of the early morning foot traffic. Maybe I was wrong, she thought a bit bitterly, maybe I’ll be just as stressed in the morning as I am at night. Frisk didn’t really have a preference for what time she worked, but this was her first morning shift that she has had since working there. Not that she minded.

She always carried mace in her purse to fight off creeps that might try anything while she was walking back home. She also had a cellphone to call for help if she ever needed it too. Frisk unconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a fake flower clip in her hair that held a small braid from the longer parts of her hair that was at the front of her face. She also had put on some light makeup, as she has seen that when she wore makeup it would help her get more tips from guys that seemed like complete tools. She saw the fluorescent light of Shelly’s and felt a small smile creeping its way onto her face. She loved the diner that she worked at, as it had become like a second family to her.

She opened the door, the soft jingle of the bell at the top of the door was heard as she made her way to the counter, where one of her friend’s was taking orders from some men that were about to start work. Diane was a pretty girl, with dark red hair and bright blue eyes that made Frisk jealous that her hazel ones weren’t as breathtaking as hers. Diane was also curvy, yet average height for their age while Frisk was petite and slender – but she didn’t mind. Her and Diane both loved each other to the point where they were like sisters. “Hey, D.” Frisk greeted as she pulled the counter up and Diane gave a small greeting as they walked back towards the kitchen to put in an order for one of the men with a fedora on. “How’s it been so far?”

“Oh, you know, the usual I suppose.” Diane said with a shrug of her shoulders as she stuck the order receipt into a metal slot on the opened window going into the kitchen. “Hurry up, Mikey – I’m waiting on like three orders here!” She said impatiently. Mike rolled his eyes playfully at the girl, Mike had light brown hair and green eyes – along with freckles that would make any girl swoon Frisk thought. Though, Mike had always been attractive – even after Frisk had befriended him, she still had a small crush on the young man. 

“Imma take more of my sweet time, then, D!” He yelled as he turned to flip over some eggs. “Besides – we only have three people out there!” He countered. And to that, was true – Frisk noted as she discarded her jacket and put it on the coat rack that was beside the kitchen door. Mornings were probably a lot slower, which Frisk was hoping as she wanted to take it easy – especially since the actual Shelly was supposed to be coming in and decorating for Christmas. Shell was a pretty laid-back woman in her mid-fifties, she was kind and would only badger her employees about working harder if they ever got slammed. But then again, Shelly never really came into the diner anymore, not after her husband had passed away.

“Oh, that’s what you think, Mike!” Diane said as she handed Frisk a pad and pen, snapping the twenty-two-year-old out of her daydreaming. “Shell called earlier when I was setting up shop and said that we’re having a huge party come in around ten o’clock – some type of business meeting. It’s the big wigs, so we have to be on our best behavior since Shell is hoping that they’ll frequent more often, and with hungry friends.” Diane finished. Frisk nodded out as she glanced at the clock that was over the main entrance – it was already nine-thirty. Thirty minutes until they got here. “And since we need our best behavior, I’m putting Frisk on serving them – of course I’ll help, don’t give me that look, Frisk –,” Diane said after Frisk gave her a panicked look, “however, since it is a bunch of big wigs, I will probably smart off faster to them than you, doll.” Diane said a bit sheepishly.

Frisk blew a raspberry, pocketing the pad into her front pocket along with the pen. “Noted, D. You do know that we both have a fuse shorter than a fire cracker, right?” She asked with mischief in her eyes. “Oh, God, Shell is gonna kill us!” She said cackling at the thought of her and Diane scaring the clients away at the first snide comment. Diane shook her head, but the ghost of a smile crossed her face. “No matter, I’ll split the tips that I get with you.” Frisk said, waving her hand to dismiss any objections that might suffer.

“What about me?” Mike asked, returning to the window before slapping the bell that sat on the edge. “Order up, D!” He yelled, causing Diane to glare at the man before snatching the plate away from him and serving it to the eager customer. Frisk chuckled at their antics, before shaking her head. “Oh, c’mon, Frisky! Shell keeps docking my pay because I keep eating all the left overs! I need at least one tip!” 

“Okay, I have a tip for you, Mike.” Frisk said, thinking for a minute. “Stop eating the left overs and you might get a raise.” She winked at the man, who stared at her – mouth agape as he faked being injured. Frisk walked to her area of the diner that she would be taking over for the day, “Hey, D! How many are there going to be?” She yelled over her shoulder. Diane thought for a minute before checking a post-it note that was stuck to the side of the register.

“Thirty!” She yelled back, causing the three gentlemen before her stare in confusion. “I would push those four tables together and get as many chairs that you can find to put around them.” She said, pointing towards the back of the shop where there was more chairs if they ever needed them. Frisk nodded before getting to work, pushing the tables together as she heard the men ask Diane what was happening. “We’re having some businessmen holding a meeting here – apparently they’re part of a really famous company that sells some kind of expensive water brand, they’re hoping to branch out to restaurants to try to sell it to them to get the word out or something.” There were murmurs between the men, that Frisk couldn’t make out – but due to Diane being naturally loud, she heard every syllable articulated perfectly. “I’m not sure why they would pick us though – we’re part of a poor neighborhood. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe they heard of the beauty that is known as Diane!” Frisk yelled back, Diane blushed furiously, before shaking her head. “They’ve come to whisk you away – and make you their wife!” Frisk continued, clasping her hands together, pressing them to the side of her face in a dreamy pose before giggling at the stupid thing that she had done. “If you do, at least you’ll be able to get out of Salem! Remember us when you get married!” Frisk chortled as Diane threw a ketchup packet at her, making Frisk dodge. The shorter of the two stuck her tongue out at the other before disappearing into the back to get more chairs for the tables. It must have taken her a while, because on her third trip to get more chairs – Diane practically came sprinting to the back room.

The red head nearly knocked Frisk down, who wheezed when she felt the other girl collide with her. “Frisk!” Diane hissed as she pulled her away from the door and closer into the room. “It’s a bunch of monsters.” She said quietly. Frisk raised an eyebrow as she thought that maybe there could have been some monsters causing some trouble for the older girl, but Diane quickly explained upon seeing Frisk’s expression. “Those business owners – the CEO, he is literally a skeleton!” Frisk eventually put two and two together, and based on her expression – it wasn’t one that Diane was hoping for. “What is Shell thinkin’? Doesn’t she know that if she accepts his offer, it’ll plummet our reputation!” 

Frisk glared at Diane, who winced, but she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter – eventually everything will be normal with the monsters being on the surface.” Frisk said with an eyeroll. “And before you try to say that they will hurt us – would they really hurt us if they want a business deal with Shell?” Frisk questioned. Diane bit the inside of her cheek before blowing a raspberry and agreeing. “Besides, I’m going to be the one waiting on them mostly, ‘member?” Frisk gave her a soft smile, and Diane seemed to have calmed down more at the thought. “C’mon, help me with the last of these chairs.”

Diane took the stack that was in Frisk’s left hand, and went out in front of her. Frisk followed timidly behind – while she didn’t really care that there were monsters in the diner, she never really had seen one face to face before. The only time she would really defend monsters would be whenever she heard someone saying something bad about them – usually racial things, but Frisk had always tried to keep her thoughts clear whenever she thought she would eventually run into a monster. When she stepped out into the main diner, she was shocked to see that it wasn’t a bunch of monsters – but rather two. 

They were both skeletons, one was the height of a normal human – but wider than the average human, making him appear larger, like he was fat or something. ‘Xcept he wasn’t, since he was bones, but that still didn’t explain the fact that he filled out the suit that he was wearing like a stocky mid-twenties man. The other skeleton was extremely tall, and toward over the other skeleton and the humans that accompanied them with ease. He seemed, that if he had flesh, he would be lanky – but even Frisk knew that he would still be powerful. It was then that she felt someone staring at her, and snapped her head in their direction – her eyes meeting with the shorter skeleton’s sockets, a faint red light being in the sockets. She blushed, as she realized she had got caught staring at them, and hastily moved towards them – chairs in hand.

“Sorry that I wasn’t here sooner!” She apologized, giving the group a gentle smile. Some of the men she had actually recognized, as some of them were already regulars at Shelly’s. That could be why they decided to eat here – they might have had a group poll or somethin’. Frisk thought as she neatly placed the chairs around the table. “I was fightin’ with the chairs, they didn’t want to come out I guess.” The humans laughed at her joke, while the skeletons seemed to be observing her out of curiosity (or hatred for rudely staring at them) she wasn’t sure. “Here, everyone sit down and I’ll take your drink orders.” She said happily.

Frisk started writing down various drinks that the gentlemen called out to her, she turned to the short skeleton – a small smile on her face. “And what about you, sir?” She asked. His lights glanced to the menu that was in front of him, and he studied it carefully. Thinking that he wasn’t sure what he wanted, Frisk gave him some options. “Diane makes a mean cup of sweet tea, if you like sweet things – that is. However, we do have normal Coca-Cola products, as well as some Pepsi products if you want to try those, sir.” Frisk said gently. The skeleton looked up at her, a strange look coming across his face.

“Can I have a bottle of mustard?” He asked. Frisk paused for a second, thinking that she had misheard him – but from the expression on his face, it looked like he had said what he meant. “Unless, there’s something wrong with that.” He said. His expression had changed to one of hostility, and Frisk gave a nervous chuckle before writing it down.

“Not at all!” She said with a smile. “Sometimes, I think I’ve heard it all when it comes to being a waitress, but I suppose I haven’t. We have a couple of brands of mustard – some more spicy than the other, do you want a specific kind?” She asked. The skeleton seemed to be in slight shock that Frisk had rebounded from his question so naturally and quickly – but being a server has taught Frisk a couple of things, one: don’t ever question a customer’s choice. Two: if they want it that way, give it to them that way so that they won’t get mad at you in the long run. And now, three: if the monster wants mustard, give him mustard.

“I ‘pose that the spiciest will be fine.” He said quietly, to which Frisk scribbled something down – the brand next to it. She then turned to the tallest skeleton, who only wanted water, (for a second, she thought that he might order ketchup) and then left – promising to be back with their drinks in a little bit. She felt the shorter skeleton’s gaze on her as she moved behind the counter, and as she began talking to Diane who was still waiting on the three gentlemen that had been there since eight-thirty. She supposed that they were watching the little business meeting take place, to which annoyed Frisk to some degree. 

“Wanna help me make the drinks? I need fifteen cokes, five waters, ten sweet teas, four diet Dr. Peppers, and one bottle of the spiciest mustard we have.” Diane gave Frisk an incredulous look, but just shook her head before she got to work on fixing the fifteen cokes while Frisk disappeared to go grab a bottle of unopened mustard. When she returned, she began helping Diane with the other drinks.

“He keeps starin’ at you.” Diane whispered lowly to Frisk who gave her a questioning look. “The short one, he keeps starin’ at you – did you piss him off or somethin’?” Frisk’s gaze went to the table, where she locked eyes with the skeleton who quickly looked away once she had laid her eyes on him.

“Nah, I don’t think so.” Frisk said. “I think he might just be surprised that I didn’t question him on his drink choice.” She said with a shrug. Diane looked over at the bottle of mustard before picking it up and inspecting it.

“Holy shit, you got the expensive one!” Diane hissed lowly. “You’re really workin’ your ass off to make sure this goes smoothly, huh?” She asked. Frisk gave her a sly smile. Diane could always see through Frisk’s plots, this one being that if she could somehow impress at least one of the businessmen – perhaps the deal with Shell’s would be a done deal, as the staff here is usually friendly. After all, they probably won’t be here for long. Just long enough to eat and discuss and then leave to their cubicles and offices, where they would be staring at computer screens until five o’clock or later, Frisk assumed.

“I mean, if it’ll help – yeah.” Frisk said with a shrug. She shifted her hands under a large serving plate, and Diane did the same. “Let’s give them their drinks.” Frisk said with a tired sigh. They walked over to the table, where both of the girl’s gave them friendly smiles before serving the men, right as Frisk was about to walk away – one of the men had stopped her.

“How’s your mom, Frisk?” He asked, giving her a gentle smile. This man was one that her mother worked with a long time ago, Daniel being his name. Frisk gave him a smile before pushing some hair behind her ear – she felt eyes on her once again, but decided to ignore them. “Last time I seen her, she was still workin’ at the brewery.” He nodded his head, down further the road, where the brewery was located. A good ten mile drive from where her mother lived.

“She’s doing just fine, Mr. Daniel, she’s quit from there a year ago.” Frisk explained as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. “She’s working as a store clerk in the downtown area, closer to home, since she moved.” Frisk explained.

“Your mom was always a hard working woman, Frisk.” Daniel said with a slight nod of approval. “And it appears, so are you.” He joked, causing Frisk to laugh at that. “Don’t you normally work nights?” He asked. Frisk found this odd that he was asking, but the thought of her pepper spray came to mind, so she decided to answer truthfully if he were to try anything.

“Yeah, I’m pullin’ some extra shifts, though. I’m planning on going back to school soon.” Frisk said. She looked at the table, noticing how some of the men had fell into quiet conversations with one another – but seen the skeleton that was sitting on the other side of her, staring at her intently. “Anyways, I suppose I’ll leave you alone, now, Mr. Daniel and get back to work so you can order. Mikey’s cookin’ today, so you know it’ll be good.” Frisk said and Daniel smiled, as Mike was the best cook that the diner has had since they first opened. Frisk moved to the counter, where she stood beside Diane – talking about something that didn’t stay in Frisk’s mind, as she felt someone staring at the back of her head something fierce.  
________________________________________

Sans had been dragged on some type of business meeting with his younger brother, Papyrus. For whatever reason the taller skeleton insisted that the older of the two accompany him on the meeting – as it would be taking place in a somewhat famous diner by the locals that inhabited the rather large, but poor neighborhood. Sans sighed as he leaned against a fence that sectioned off an abandoned building from the busy street. He breathed in the smoke of a cigarette that was between his teeth when he seen someone that had caught his attention.

Normally humans, didn’t get a second glance from the CEO – but for some reason, this one seemed to have caught his attention by merely existing. The young woman was petite, slender frame that seemed doubled as she had a large, faded brown work coat covering most of her outfit. Her brown hair was cut short, and had a clip that tucked two larger strands into a braid. Her face had light makeup that Sans barely noticed at first. She seemed to be waling, pretty fast, in the southern part of town. Sans felt his face heat up when she passed by him briefly – her perfume fogging his mind, it was a flowery scent that smelled of lilacs and roses. It was brief, but it would forever be a part of Sans’s memory – that was for sure. 

Sans shook his head, as his brother came into sight and the woman left it. Sans allowed his mind to be cleared as Papyrus began explaining the business plan to his older brother. Sans nodded along, not really vocally agreeing – but still agreeing nonetheless. The plan was simple, try to score a decent deal with the diner, as they were meeting with some of the other business partners that was a part of Shelly’s. Essentially, what the brothers wanted to do was buy a share in the business and supply some of the foods that the diner ran off on, as well as the drink products that they used.

Basically what they were wanting to replace the well known brands, with their new brand that had just started a little over a couple years ago when Wingdings decided to become more sociable with society and wanted to mingle with the humans that they shared the earth with. Sans looked over at his little brother, Papyrus – the second tallest skeleton of the bunch. He was dressed in a tailored fit, black suit. His sockets had faint red lights in them that were wandering the street that they were walking down. Sans looked down at his own attire for the business meeting – a dark maroon vest with a black button up under it, tucked into some black slacks. He had his jacket slung over his shoulder, and the sleeves were rolled up to where his elbows jutted out. 

Needless to say, Sans wasn’t looking forward to this business meeting as much as Papyrus was. Sans knew that most humans weren’t as accepting of monsters – and the fact that this small diner was willing to do business with them shocked the middle skeleton a tad bit. Nevertheless, money is money in Sans’ mind – no matter how you acquire it. Sans sighed, causing his little brother to look at him. “SOMETHING WRONG, SANS?” Papyrus asked carefully. Paps knew that Sans would stress easily over something, and there was a fifty-fifty chance of Sans exploding on Papyrus for being questioned about his behavior.

“Just worried ‘bout the business meetin’ is all.” Sans said truthfully as he ran a hand over his skull – something he had picked up over the years whenever he would get nervous. “Just ‘cause we offer the best deals on this side of the street, don’t mean that we’ll be doin’ business with ‘em if we piss ‘em off.” Sans explained. He had found that it was easy to anger humans more so that it was humans – something which amused him whenever he would be managing a group of humans back at the main offices and he would decide to give them a hard time. “But, the place looks like it’s real homey.” Sans said as they stopped outside of the bricked building – the fluorescent light not really being annoying, but rather welcoming to those that had managed to stumble upon the small diner.

Upon looking through the window, Sans could see that it had faded blue walls, however the counter that separated the kitchen and the cash register from the rest of the diner, the wall behind it was painted black with yellow accents around it. There were three gentlemen that were dressed in various attire for different jobs, one appeared to be a desk worker, the other a construction worker, and the last one could have just been someone stopping in for a quick cup of coffee. Sans saw one waitress that was laughing and conversing with he patrons, she had dark red hair and a curvy figure – he couldn’t make out any facial features as he was farther away, however he knew one thing for sure:

He didn’t feel anything like he had when the little lady went walking past him whenever he was waiting for his brother to meet with him. He couldn’t get her soft, round face out of his mind as she had walked so quickly by – a determined look on her face that made her all the more cute to the bigger skeleton. He shook his head, banishing the image of her from his head as he figured he would never see her again in the crowd of the city. Just as he was coming back to reality, he noticed that Papyrus was talking to some of the employees that they were meeting with before heading inside. 

Once inside, Sans didn’t fail to notice how the female human visibly reacted to seeing the two monster siblings. It was like an electric shock going through her body as she quickly turned around and headed around a corner that lead to a door that Sans hadn’t seen previously upon when he first inspected the diner. Papyrus didn’t seem bothered, as he picked where they were sitting – the couple of tables that were shoved together for a large group. Sans moved to the table, allowing the human employees to sit before he would. He suddenly realized that they needed at least a couple more chairs, and right when he was going to try to find the waitress that had ran off – he froze in his tracks.

His eyes locked with the young woman that he had seen on the street earlier that day – she seemed to be studying them; shock was on her face, but unlike her coworker’s look, it seemed that she was surprised – but happily. Once she realized that she had been staring, he seen a light pink dust her cheeks and the tips of her ears, as she quickly apologized and began seating the chairs around the table. Sans was still in disbelief that he had managed to come across the little lady once again – and in the place of where his future work would be dedicated to over the course of an unannounced time period.

“Sorry that I wasn’t here sooner!” She apologized, giving the group a gentle smile. Sans’s eyes searched her face to see if she could recognize him – if he even would. He suddenly realized that he would be spending a lot more time at Shelly’s. Even though I had seen the girl far away, I knew that she would still be a looker. Sans thought to himself. “I was fightin’ with the chairs, they didn’t want to come out I guess.” The little lady said, causing some of the employees to laugh while Papyrus seemed to be confused about a human fighting with an inanimate object. Sans only stared at the young woman in wonder as he tried to figure her out – it was like watching magic being performed for the very first time to someone who didn’t understand it. “Here, everyone sit down and I’ll take your drink orders.” The lady said gently once again as she pulled out a notepad and pen.

Sans remained silent as the others ordered, and when the lady turned to her – he didn’t think about what to drink before he spoke. It slipped out before he managed to catch it, a little monster tick that could cause a young lady like herself to be freaked out. “Can I have a bottle of mustard?” He asked. The lady paused for a second, probably thinking that she had misheard him – but Sans was awfully serious. He really loved his mustard. “Unless, there’s something wrong with that.” He said. He felt anger surge through his body for a brief second as the thought of being judged past through his mind, and the lady had gave him a nervous chuckle before writing it down.

“Not at all!” She said with a smile. “Sometimes, I think I’ve heard it all when it comes to being a waitress, but I suppose I haven’t. We have a couple of brands of mustard – some more spicy than the other, do you want a specific kind?” She asked. Sans was surprised that she didn’t turn her nose up at him – and that she had responded so quickly after the shock and confusion that had crossed her face seconds before. He inspected her face, finding no traces of mockery or annoyance at having to attend to him specifically. She seemed just as patient as ever, which kind of annoyed the skeleton to some degree.

“I ‘pose the spiciest will be fine.” Sans replied quietly, and watched as she scribbled something down on the pad before excusing herself to fix their drinks. Sans’s gaze wandered over to the human before Papyrus began to talk to Sans about marketing within the company. Sans handled the marketing aspect, while Papyrus was more of a human and monster’s resource guy, and Wings was the big brains behind the whole operation. “It’ll be easy to gain more attention to the small diner, Paps.” Sans said as he propped his chin up on to his left hand.

“I DON’T KNOW BROTHER,” Papyrus began wearily – he then looked at the humans at the table who were having small conversations, however there were some that were showing interest in the skeleton brothers’ conversation. “HOW ABOUT YOU, MR. DANIEL? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS DINER?” Papyrus asked as the man seemed to be shocked that the skeleton had asked for his opinion – but he thought about it briefly, before answering.

“I’ve been comin’ to Shell’s diner for the last ten years, Mr. Papyrus.” Daniel began as he then pointed at the two waitresses that were fixing the drinks and having a small conversation. “And it’s all because of those two – they really know how to connect with customers, make you feel like they actually care.” Daniel then paused as he gave a brief smile to the two bosses. “And they do, I mean – I’ve known Frisk since she was a tot, her mother and I used to work together before her father passed away and they moved further into the city.”

“Frisk?” Sans questioned, as Daniel hadn’t pointed to a specific waitress. Daniel then nodded towards the little lady that he had been eyeing since the sidewalk. He let the name wash over his head, allowing her to fill his senses before he tried to reason with his thoughts. Daniel got a weird grin on his face as he sent Sans a wink – causing Sans to wonder what exactly was going through the old man’s head. “How about the other one?” He asked, trying to throw off any trail that he might have been putting down. “What’s her name?” He asked as he coughed into his hand – trying to change the subject to keep his mind from staying still for too long.

“Diane Hersh.” Daniel said. “She’s a real firecracker sometimes – I think it’s the German in her.” He said with a slight chuckle. There was a glint in Daniel’s eye as he inspected Sans, “Frisk, is a headstrong woman – she’s hard to get along with sometimes.” Daniel explained as one of the others nodded beside him nodded. “However, she’s just trying to protect herself is all.” 

“Why would she need ‘t protect herself.” Sans asked, curiosity clouding over his eye sockets. Daniel was about to open his mouth when Frisk returned, with Diane in tow, with two large serving platters full of drinks. Sans spotted his mustard and felt his soul ache – he had been having withdraws, bad, from the lack of the spicy substance in his life. He could see Paps bristle beside him – he would definitely be keeping an eye on his older brother’s mustard intake. Frisk sat the bottle in front of Sans, and gave him a polite smile – which the skeleton would have returned if she wasn’t so busy attending to the other guests. Nevertheless, he still enjoyed the brief smile he got.  
He watched as Frisk was about to leave, before Daniel had stopped her to talk about something – he seemed to be stalling for some reason, as his glance would occasionally go towards the shorter of the two skeletons. Sans listened to the conversation while carefully unscrewing the mustard bottle and peeling off the protective sticker before putting it back together. He took a sip as he watched Frisk happily replying, all the while she seemed to be fidgeting with her server platter that was placed in front of her – as if in a protective manner. It still kind of irked Sans that Frisk felt like she needed to protect herself at all times. However, he didn’t know what she has been through to feel that way.

Frisk awkwardly excused herself from the group so that the group of businessmen would be able to gather their thoughts before ordering. Sans briefly glanced at the menu already seeing a burger that he would want to try – but since it was roughly ten in the morning, he wondered if that would be acceptable for the group. He glanced over at Papyrus who was ogling at a picture of spaghetti and figured that it would be acceptable to order an early lunch this one time. He closed his menu, and when he did he felt a presence behind him. When he turned to look her nearly screamed, but choked it back down with a cough.

He was seeing Frisk – or at least a version of her that seemed all too menacing to actually be the polite, petite girl that was talking happily with her coworker behind the counter. This version of her, she appeared to be younger than she is now – possibly a young teen, with a messy face and a bandage pulled tightly across her left cheek as a glare settled onto her hazel gaze. She was glaring at a corner of the diner – but whatever was there, he couldn’t see. Frisk’s hair was longer now, and it looked odd on her as it brushed past her shoulders while she raised an arm to point at the corner, a wordless phrase coming out of her mouth that had left Sans questioning what was happening. 

Sans was used to seeing past selves of people – he had seen people at their worst, and their best, it was a thing that he hated and for the most part he had it under control. So it shocked him that this had happened so suddenly without warning – he shook his head, trying to clear his head of the image of Frisk. When his gaze went back to area that the younger version of Frisk was at, she was no longer there. “Are you okay, sir?” A soft voice asked. He quickly snapped around to see the same hazel eyes staring at him – but older this time. There seemed to be some stories and secrets hidden within them, as age had changed how her eyes looked from when they were younger. Innocent, yet fierce enough to stand up for herself. The fierceness was still there, but like most adult humans and monsters – the innocence that was once in their eyes had been lost a long time ago.

“Uh, yeah, just fine. I think I just had a ghost spook me is all.” Sans said a bit sheepishly as Frisk looked confused, but relaxed. She must be stressed about the business meeting that was happening. Who wouldn’t be if it meant that your place of business could work with better benefits and better pay? Frisk then pulled out her notepad and motioned for Sans to start the order off. “I’ll just have the Boom Burger, if ya don’t mind, dollface.” He saw Frisk tense at the nickname, but she scribbled down the order before moving on to the others. He stared at her briefly before allowing his brother to steal his attention as their food was cooking.

To say that Sans was hungry was an understatement – he had a bad habit of skipping literally every meal whenever he would pull extra shifts down at the offices. “I THINK THAT THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS, WOULD BE TO FIX THE LIGHT FIXTURES.” Papyrus said this in a moderately lower voice, motioning towards the outdated fluroscent lighting that made Sans’s eyes hurt. He squinted at the lights before verbally agreeing with his brother. “ALSO, I THINK A PAY RAISE WOULD BE GOOD AS WELL FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE WORKED HERE FOR OVER THREE MONTHS.” Papyrus said before nodding towards the two waitresses that were helping the cook begin with the meals. 

Sans agreed, as most servers only get paid two dollars and fifty cents, and live mostly off of the tips that they get from every shift. Some servers would be lucky enough to get a generous tip, and some were not. “How big we thinkin’, Boss?” Sans asked as Papyrus looked off to the side – he was obviously trying to remember what Wings had said about the pay. The two brothers had a meeting together to discuss the game plan that they would review to Shelly if they liked her business enough. And while Sans would love to sign on a contract now, he knew that they were getting in over their heads as they hadn’t been able to taste the food yet. That would all be a big deciding factor in if the business would become a part of their branches of various restaurants that the city had to offer to the civilians.

“I THINK WINGS SAID SOMETHING ABOUT PAYING THEM MINIMUM WAGE, ON TOP OF ALLOWING THEM TO KEEP ANY TIPS THAT THEY MAKE.” Papyrus said. This caused some of the businessmen to choke on their drinks, as they weren’t expecting something like that to come out of the taller skeleton’s mouth. “IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT? IS IT TOO LITTLE? WE ARE STILL DEBATING ON A SET WAGE UNTIL WE SIGN THE CONTRACT.” Papyrus explained quickly, thinking that he may have offended some of the regular customers that did attend the small diner. 

“No, it’s not that, Mr. Papyrus.” A mousy man spoke up. He had slicked back black hair and bright blue eyes that would easily make any girl swoon, or at least – that’s what Sans thought since most girls went for guys with lighter eyes versus darker eyes. “It’s just that, that is extremely generous for a new boss to propose. The girls, they only make about two-fifty a hour.” The man, that Sans thought to be named Andrew, clarified. “As much as they work here, you would expect them to get paid a lot more – in all honesty, they deserved to be paid that much in my opinion.” Papyrus nodded at this, taking in the information. Sans had been keeping how much the girls made from his younger brother, as if it was within his younger brother’s power he would pay them as much as he could.

And while Sans did agree that they were making an extremely low salary, paying them more than the city’s minimum wage may put the business at a risk of bankruptcy. His red lights trained on the back of Frisk who was coming out of the kitchen to receive something behind the counter – he wondered how she lived, if she lived from tip to tip or if she had managed to somehow save a lot of money in order to take care of herself. He wasn’t sure why he cared, other than the fact that he did find her attractive – but there was one thing that Sans knew about most humans that have lived in this new day and age. Most of them didn’t really care for monsters, he had picked up on Diane’s uneasiness the moment she bolted for the back door to retrieve her coworker.

However, with Frisk in mind, it was hard to pinpoint if she was really bothered by Sans and his brother or not. Some humans were really good at hiding their hatred for the monsters, to the point that Sans wasn’t sure what was genuine and what was forced politeness. The men that surrounded Papyrus and Sans in this small meeting had went through numerous screenings within the skeletons’ minds to weed out any possibilities of them being hostile to the brothers. Such as proposing outrageous business plans, making snide comments about (not only them) but also the business that they would be visiting. It seemed that it was pure luck that most of the men that they had hand selected were frequent regulars at the diner.

Sans took another brief look over the diner – it was small, cozy, but had a home feeling to it that reminded him of Grillby’s whenever it was first getting started. Sans snapped out of his reverie as Daniel waved a hand in front of his face. “You seemed to be spacing out boss, I was telling you about how the food here is to die for.” Daniel said, giving Sans a small smile. “The first time I ate here I was twenty-something. It was literally the best burger I have ever tasted in my entire life – but that was before Frisk, Diane or Mikey started working here.” Daniel said, motioning to the three coworkers that were yelling happily in the kitchen. Sans could see Frisk laughing at something that Diane did to Mike, and felt his soul warm at the feeling. “They were probably toddlers whenever I first ate here – or not even born. It was back when Shell first wanted to be a part of the business twenty-four-seven.”

“So where is the woman in question now?” Sans asked, noticing how the lack of the owner in question. Normally Sans would like to introduce himself to the owner. “She feelin’ under the weather or somethin’?” Sans asked. Daniel shrugged, before taking a sip of his coke that was to the right of him. Daniel then looked over to the door, where a soft jingle gave out. A woman in her mid-fifties stood there. She appeared to be in her winter wear, a thick jacket and jeans, brown boots with the beginnings of snow nipping at them and were stuck in the fur at the top. She had a black beanie on her head, where her long blonde hair was whisping out from the harsh wind that blew fiercely in.

“Speak of the devil and she shall appear!” Daniel hooted causing some men from the table to laugh and the clattering in the kitchen to halt. Sans could see the three coworkers peek out at their owner before slowly backing away to get back to work. Shelly flashed a bright smile at the business men before setting a large box down next to the door, making her way over towards the table. “What kept you from enjoying our company, Shell Bear?” Daniel asked as he stood up and gave the older woman a hug. Shelly wrapped her arms around him tightly, before glancing over at the two skeletons in the room. Her eyes visibly lightened up as curiosity seemed to take over her mind. Sans ruled out that she was a racist – after all, who would want to be in partnership with a bunch of monsters.

“Nonsense, Daniel, I had to go pick up some decorations.” She said, motioning to the box. “I promised Frisk that we would be putting up Christmas decorations since it’s the middle of November.” Shelly said while Daniel rolled his eyes playfully before sitting back down, lapsing into conversation with the man next to him. Her eyes went to Papyrus and walked towards him before extending her hand. “Sorry I’m late, Mr. Papyrus, I was caught in traffic when I ran to the storage shed. I’m Shelly Bries.” Shelly introduced herself while giving an apologetic smile to Sans’s younger brother. Papyrus took her hand and shook it before she turned her attention to Sans. “You must be Mr. Sans, it’s a pleasure to meet you as well.” Shelly said, shaking Sans’s hand. If Sans had knew that he would be shaking hands he would have kept the whoopie cushion in his pocket to prank the new business partner.

“IT IS PLEASANT TO MEET YOU AS WELL, MRS. BRIES – BUT PLEASE, YOU CAN REFER TO US IN OUR FIRST NAMES.” Papyrus said happily. Sans saw his brother give a wide smile – as he seemed to enjoy Shelly’s presence. And who couldn’t? She radiated motherly vibes and calmness. Shelly gave a nod before pulling up a chair to sit in between the two skeletons. “TELL US WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM US IN THE FUTURE, THAT IS IF YOU LIKED THE PLAN THAT YOU GOT IN THE MAIL.” Papyrus said as gently as he could in his naturally loud voice. Sans tuned out the conversation as Shelly began talking business, not before offering them coffee or hot cocoa on the house. Some men took her up on the offer, and she yelled for Frisk to come out and take the order. 

Frisk returned just as quickly with the hot drinks as she did with the cold ones. Sans had not ordered any, but Daniel had ordered some coffee to get the morning gears going. When Frisk bent down to give Daniel his coffee – Sans noticed that the serving platter tipped slightly, spilling some out onto Frisk’s skin. She breathed in a quick breath before quickly recovering, acting as if it hadn’t happened. She finished handing out the hot beverages before hightailing it back to the kitchen – where Sans assumed that she would receive some medical attention. Sans pulled out some ointment that he had gotten from Undyne a couple a weeks ago, when he received a bad burn from hot coffee spilling onto his hand. It had lessened the pain a lot, so he kept it on him at all times as he was an avid coffee drinker at work. 

When Frisk came back out, with some of the food in tow, Sans managed to get her attention quietly as the others conversed loudly with one another. “Are you alright, dollface?” Confusion crossed her face before Sans explained. “I saw ya’ get burned by coffee earlier.” He explained. Frisk had an embarrassed look on her face before Sans gave her a sheepish smile. “Listen, I know coffee can burn like a bitch – I spill it on me all the time, I have this ointment that a friend gave to me because of it.” He then produced the gray, small tube that had a cheesy catch phrase on it. Frisk inspected it before Sans gave it to her. “You can have it – it usually helps the pain lessen in five minutes or so, I can buy more at the dollar store if I need it.”

“This is at the dollar store?” Frisk asked, an incredulous look on her face.

“Yeah, it’s like ninety-eight cents or somethin’.” Sans said nonchalantly. “But it does pack a punch against burns.” He said with a wink, which made Frisk laugh.

“Well, thank ya’, mister.” She said, waving the tube in one hand. “I hope you all can seal the deal on this, I actually like having new, polite customers around.” Frisk winked at Sans before returning to the kitchen – Sans felt his face heat up before he tried to turn his attention to somewhere else so he could pass it off. When he made eye contact with Daniel, he knew he failed, as Daniel gave him an eyebrow wiggle much to Sans’s embarrassment. 

“Not a word, Mr. Daniel.” Sans groaned as the businessman laughed.


	2. First Dates and Unexpected Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has a date.

It had been three hours since the businessmen had left, and within those three hours Mikey had pulled the Christmas tree out of the storage room and put it in the right corner, facing a large window so passerby would be able to view it. Frisk had pulled the box of decorations next to the tree, looking at the neatly packed decorations – trying to decide on a theme to go with. “Don’t think too hard, Frisky.” Mikey quipped, causing the petite girl to glare at the young man. “you’ll get wrinkles with that expression.” He winked at the girl.

“No matter what you do, you get wrinkles, Mikey.” Frisk said and afterwards, she blew a raspberry at the taller individual. She turned her attention back to the box, examining some red and gold colored decorations. “How ‘bout instead of standin’ there useless, you help me put these decorations on the tree?” Frisk asked turning to look at the green eyed boy. Mike pouted before Frisk put a finger up. “I don’t wanna hear it! You came over here to pester me, and this is what you get, Mikey.” Frisk said before throwing some ornaments into his hands. “Get to work, Mikey.” She barked, causing the young man to slump in defeat as he moved towards the tree to begin placing ornaments in a decent fashion.

Diane waltzed her way over there, after waving off the last customer out the door and into the snow that had started to fall during the middle of the meeting that took place in the middle of the diner. “Wow, Mikey, you sure are whipped, aren’t cha?” Diane asked coyly.

“Shut up Diane! Like Cailee doesn’t have you whipped!” Mike quipped back just as fast. The redhead blushed, spluttering out a slew of words that didn’t form a constructive sentence as Mike roared in laughter. “Oh, c’mon, D! I’m just yankin’ your chain!” Mike teased, as he grabbed his side. Frisk couldn’t help but giggle, getting a playful glare from Diane as she did so – who was still red in the face. “Hey, why aren’t you makin’ her help, Frisky?” Mike asked, cocking an eyebrow down at the petite girl.

“Because she isn’t easy to intimidate into helping me.” Frisk said with a smirk as a scowl crossed Mike’s face and he stalked off behind the tree – mumbling something about Frisk and Diane, to which the two girls just laugh. “So, whadaya need boss?” Frisk asked, turning her attention to Diane. Frisk crossed her arms – knowing that Diane had something on her mind, it appeared that she did from the moment the group left earlier. However, she hasn’t had a time to speak with Frisk since Shelly had been here for a while. Now, however, Shell left a little over thirty minutes ago and left the store to her employees own devices.

“It’s about that wide skelly.” Diane said, with a pointed look as she leaned against the table that was across from Frisk. “I don’t like the way he was lookin’ at ya, Frisk. He looked at you like…like…”

“Like you were a meal.” Mike spoke up, returning from his position behind the tree. Frisk gave a questioning look to her two friends who shared a look between one another. “Listen, I know that monsters eatin’ humans is all just myths ‘n shit, Frisk – but I mean – he looked like he wanted to swalla’ you whole.” Mike explained, doing frantic hand motions. He only ever did those whenever he got nervous – not so much for him, but rather when he was explaining a situation that could end badly. Much like he was now.

“So?” Frisk asked. “We’ll probably never see ‘em again, I mean – Shell is the owner and we see her maybe two times a week. I don’t think that they would want to come to a place that the owner hardly ever visits.” Frisk said, trying to calm her friends’ nerves. It wasn’t a secret that Frisk had seen the way he had been staring at her, and it kind of unnerved her at first – but she just chalked it up to maybe he had something he wanted to say, but couldn’t out of embarrassment or fear – she didn’t care. She knew that he must not have been all that bad, since he had gave her the burn ointment. Her finger briefly brushed over the cap of the tube that was hidden in her pocket, and she shook her head. “Even if they do, we need to be polite. Like we always are.” Frisk pressed.

Diane looked over at Mike who sighed, before grabbing some tinsel from the box before working on the tree once more. Diane now crossed her arms as she looked out the window. “I don’t know how well this is gonna go over, Frisk.” Diane said softly. Frisk raised a brow, as if prompting her friend to continue on to what she was going to say. Diane hesitated, before taking a deep breath and expressing what was on her mind. “If Shell goes into business with monsters, we’ll suffer for it, Frisk.” Diane pressed. “Don’t you see, if the hood finds out that we’re messin’ with a monster’s business we’ll be doneso!” Diane practically yelled.

Frisk whipped around, facing the wall as she took in a deep breath before facing Diane. She had to calm herself – because she knew damn sure that those words did not come out of her mouth of all people. “Oh, like how the hood found out that you were gay you would be doneso?” Frisk said quickly, and with such venom that Diane wasn’t sure she had caught it. “The hood doesn’t care – the only one that does is you!” Frisk said, jabbing her thumb in Diane’s direction. “Our ‘hood’ is one of the only ones that will actually accept monsters with open arms – they are more progressive than the rest of this city combined.” Frisk spat out as she turned on her heel to go back to the box full of decorations.

“Frisk, I – that’s not what I mean – you know what I mean, don’t ‘ya?” 

“Oh that my next door neighbor is a Shyren?” Frisk said, turning towards the girl and crossing her arms. “And that she is literally the sweetest person I have ever met in my entire life?” Frisk asked, tilting her head as she seen Diane look off to the side. “Listen, I don’t know why you’re so against this – but if this can better the diner, then you need to be happy for Shelly that this is happening. All she has ever wanted, was to be recognized by someone, and it is finally happening Diane.” Frisk then paused, as she seen Diane trying to think of some lame excuse to try to persuade Frisk to see it her way. “D, if you don’t like it, you can always quit after Shell signs the contract.” 

Diane’s head snapped up at the comment, and Frisk heard Mike stop rustling behind the tree – the tinsel no longer crinkling under the pressure of his hands. Diane opened her mouth and closed it, like a fish gasping for water. Frisk shrugged her shoulders before continuing where she had left off. “I mean, miss out of the pay raise – they’re planning on paying us actual minimum wage, along with keeping our tips that we make.” Frisk turned on her heel, rummaging through the ornaments before turning back to Diane, and thrusting them out in front of Diane. “So, D, you can either quit and go to some other diner that will pay you even less where the tips are shitty, or you can grit your teeth and stay here, making decent pay and keeping your close minded comments to yourself.” Frisk said lowly.

Diane visibly gulped before reaching out and grasping onto the ornaments firmly, a glare on her face. “She has a point, D.” Mikey suddenly said as he came from back around the tree. “Even I’m getting a pay raise – it’s not that bad to be under new management, even if they’re not the same race.” He emphasized the word, ‘race’, as Diane hated being labeled a racist – however, from what she was saying, it appeared that she was more of one than she said that she was. “So yeah, quit, or get back to work and try to act like you enjoy working here.” 

Diane looked at her hands, before moving past Frisk and began putting decorations up quietly. The tense atmosphere that had been placed among the three coworkers had dissipated and they resumed their work quietly, trying to prevent another fight from breaking out.   
________________________________________  
Frisk got to her apartment, groaning as her back hit her mattress – it was early evening, probably five o’clock if she had to guess from how tired she felt. Her phone chimed, as she squeezed her eyes – wondering who in the world would message her immediately after a shift. She rolled on her side, grabbing her phone and sliding it open to look at the message to see who had messaged her. She nearly jumped in excitement when she seen that it was from Daryl, a man that she had met at the diner and had exchanged numbers with on whim as she had been meaning to get out there more often and date.

After all, she was twenty-two-years-old and she had needs that she would like to act upon; one of them being find someone serious to date so she could settle down with them and start a family…eventually. She slid open the message, and felt her face flush from the cute message that he had sent.

‘Are you ready for tonight? Nuki is!’ Along with a picture of his corgi that was dressed in a holiday sweater, sleeping peacefully on his dog bed. Frisk giggled before quickly sending a message back and getting up, deciding to nap later as she wanted to get another shower before the date. Opened up her wardrobe that was on the other side of her room. She pulled out a purple sweater dress and lain it on the bed before getting some black thigh high socks along with it. She then dashed to the bathroom to hop into the shower.

The warm water caressed her body, and allowed her muscles to relax. She may have been stressing out over the date for the last couple of days – she has met up with Daryl, sometimes in passing, to go get a coffee or to get lunch, but nothing like tonight. From what Frisk had been able to pick up, they would be going to dinner at a restaurant and follow it up by a movie. Frisk sighed in content as she stepped outside of the shower, wrapping a blue towel around her slender frame.

She meandered her way through the house, hissing when her toe hit the edge of the coffee table. She then went back to her room, where she quickly got dressed and slipped on some brown boots that were perfect against snow and the winter season. She quickly dried her hair, and styled it into slight waves, before doing slight makeup. After doing a once over on her appearance, she checked her phone – Daryl letting him know that he was out in front of her apartment and waiting for her to come down.

She felt a bright smile cross her features as she bounded down the stairs to the front door, when she opened the door from the lobby out into the cold she seen Daryl standing next to a ’69 red model Camaro – having opened the passenger door, patiently waiting. Daryl was a six foot nothing young man, with blonde hair and hazel-green eyes that made Frisk’s heart melt. Frisk offered up a smile before being escorted to the passenger side. “You look adorable, Frisk.” Daryl commented, causing the young girl to blush. 

“Thank you, Daryl, you look rather dashing yourself.” Frisk said after Daryl chuckled before closing the passenger door gently and moving to the driver side and buckling himself up, and turning the ignition over. “So where exactly are you planning on taking us to dinner?” Frisk asked as she relaxed herself against the seat, the heater blowing out warm air and allowing Frisk to feel cozy. Daryl snickered as a coy smile came across his face. “So help me God, you say Shelly’s.”

“Well I was going to say that, but since I don’t plan on dying today, I am actually taking you to this neat little bar called Grillby’s.” Daryl said before looking at Frisk out of his peripheral vision. Frisk nodded, Grillby’s was a new bar and restaurant that was constructed by a monster, literally made of fire. She had been meaning to go to it, as some of her other friends recommended it to her since it had burgers that could rival Mikey’s. “Afterwards, we can go watch that new movie?”

“What kind is it?” Frisk asked, feeling her stomach sinking. Frisk wasn’t one for romance movies – surprisingly, she preferred action movies or horror movies. She wracked her brain for the new movies that were coming out this month – and she was drawing up a blank as to what it could be. If anything, it would probably be a Christmas movie, not that she minded – it was about to be Christmas in just a few short weeks. She turned her attention to Daryl, who had begun to speak.

“It’s Flowers Over Him.” He said. “Apparently it’s really good, despite the cheesy name.” He said, baiting the line in hopes that Frisk would be happy with his choice. Frisk wanted to fight back the urge to groan, but gave a sweet smile – after all, she wasn’t paying for this, Daryl said that he would cover everything since it was a date after all. But he normally covered everything, the tabs at the coffee shops, the sweets at the bakery – and now an expensive dinner and a movie to boot. Frisk forgot to ask what he did for a living.

“It sounds great, Daryl.” She said softly, wrapping her fingers into the hem of her sleeves as she turned her attention back to the window before looking back at him. “So, what exactly was it that you do for a livin’? I don’t think that I caught it.” Frisk pried. She noticed how his hands clenched slightly at the steering wheel, and his eyes seemed to be darting back and forth. Frisk didn’t really care what kind of jobs people had – but if he was something like a drug dealer or a gang leader, she would have to reevaluate how she would view him after this date. “You can be honest with me, Daryl. I don’t judge.” Much. Frisk thought.

Frisk knew that it was hard in this world, trying to provide for yourself and possibly a family. However, Daryl was a young man, and the possibilities for him were endless. The fact that he was young, is what set off some alarms in Frisk’s mind. He had a nice car, and while auto loans seemed like a plausible explanation, she had a nagging feeling in the back of her head that he paid for this car in full. Daryl cleared his throat, and he seemed to be thinking of a good excuse to tell her. “Well, my boss, that I work for,” He started slowly. “He’s sort of a, CEO, for a corporation. They’ve been around for a while.”

He paused, he seemed to be collecting his thoughts as the street lights bounced off of the car, and green stop lights illuminated his face and made him appear more somber than his voice sounded at the moment. Daryl always had a natural happy-go-lucky tilt in his voice that was still deep, and it was the first thing that Frisk had found attractive within the young man. Now she wondered if that was just something he did whenever he was pulling someone into a spider web unsuspectingly. “They’ve been underground, only a handful of people knew they existed. Now, however, they have been above ground – working right alongside the other businesses.” Daryl said, waving a hand at an attempt to be dismissive.

“How popular are they?” Frisk asked softly, “I may have heard of them.” She said while flashing him a bright smile. Daryl gulped before he turned his attention strictly to the road in front of them. Okay, Frisk thought, ain’t gettin’ any more information from him. Frisk thought dismissively – she would eventually find out who he worked for, as she always had a nose for getting into trouble without really meaning to. Frisk sighed contently as she leaned back up against the seat. “So, these burgers – exactly how much can they rival Shelly’s?” She asked, taking a look at Daryl through the corner of her eye. 

She saw his lip turned up in a smile as he began explaining how good the food was, he had apparently went there ahead of time to make sure that it was worthwhile. Frisk couldn’t help but feel touched at the thought that he went ahead of time to make sure that she would enjoy. “It’s real cozy, after all it’s sort of just starting out.” Daryl explained as he parked the car, and went to go help her out of her side. “But overall, it’s pretty much like one of those old bars from the 1920s, kinda like a speakeasy.” Daryl said, walking her up to the door and holding it open for her.

Frisk wanted to groan outwardly at the young man – he was such a gentleman that it was eating away at her moral compass. If he was entangled with a mob or drugs, she would like to know so she wouldn’t get attached and make some stupid decisions. Instead of screaming her head off in frustration, like she wanted to do, she smiled politely before walking into the warm parlor that welcomed them from the nipping cold. Her eyes widened at the scene in front of her – Daryl wasn’t kidding when he said it was like a speakeasy. 

Women – monster and human alike – walked around in a flapper get-up, their hair styled in finger waves, and shimmery body dresses that would catch the glint of the floating flames that were softly roaming around the restaurant. A woman with blonde hair, styled into a bun with little doll curls around her eyes and cheeks smiled brightly at the two. She held two menus in her manicured, red hand. She was wearing a silver, sequin body dress that would glint in just the right places and black heels to match. She waved them to a booth in the far corner, to where Frisk had to leap in order to catch up with the long-legged waitress. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, Doll!” The woman said apologetically when she looked behind her, she gave an apologetic smile. “I’m used to it mostly being men chasing after me, so I have to walk fast in order to avoid an ass grab.” She said the last part quietly, to which Frisk gave a shy smile.

“I understand what you mean.” Frisk said, “I work at a diner, and while our uniforms ain’t as pretty – we still get the occasional pervert in there.” Frisk and the woman seemed to have bonded instantly, sharing waitressing stories before she disappeared to go get them their drinks. She turned her gaze back to Daryl, who looked amused. “What?” She asked a bit coyly.

“Nothin’,” He said with a grin. “Though, I think I should leave – I feel like a third wheel.” He said with a chuckle, which caused Frisk to roll her eyes before laughing along with him. “So, other than waitressing at our local diner – what other hobbies do you have?” He asked, leaning forward. His elbows were on the table, his face leaning – looking up at her. Frisk copied the position, her eyes never wavering from his as she gave him a soft smirk.

“I like to sing.” She said a bit quickly, “But I ain’t good, I prefer paintin’ as I do to singin’.” She explained. “I managed to sell a couple of pieces at a flea market a couple of months ago.” She explained, she examined his yes – they were so clear, unlike her muggy hazel-brown. She wish she had eyes like that. “I also read a lot, though I don’t talk like I do. I mostly read stories that involve a character dying at some point – usually my favorite ones.” She said.

“No happy endings?” Daryl asked, a surprised look coming across his face. A chuckle escaped her lips as she leaned back up against the booth, crossing her arms. She remembered having this conversation with Diane – Diane loved romance novels, where the two ended up together, no matter what. But real life wasn’t like that sometimes.

“I enjoy happy endings – but some of ‘em ain’t realistic.” Frisk said quietly, moving her gaze down to look at the hardwood floors beneath them. “Life ain’t no Disney movie – we’re better off trying to work, not towards a perfect happy ending – but rather, a happy ending perfect for us.” She said. The ‘perfect’ happy ending, as she put it, would be meeting someone for the first time and falling in love with them – instantly. Before you ever got to know them. When she was getting to know Daryl she couldn’t help but feel an undeniable pull towards him. However, now that there were second thoughts about his job – she didn’t feel the happy ending that was perfect for her.

“And what is your perfect ending, Frisk?” Daryl asked curiously.

“Security, safety, a decent payin’ job doing what I love.” She began slowly, as a far-off look got on her face. She took a deep breath, uncrossed her arms, and repositioned herself into the stance she was in – elbows on the table. “I also see a family – a man that I love very much, by my side, who dotes on me and the children that we’ll have. Our children, they’ll be unique in their own ways, and they’ll be adventurous.” She said softly, as a smile crossed on her face. “That’s what mine looks like.”

Daryl looked at her, a weird look on his face as a smile crossed his face. “I have to agree, that does sound nice – kinda like mine, but a lot more traveling around the world.” He said with a chuckle. “Though, I wouldn’t mind settling down after seeing some of the world.” He said – offering Frisk a wink, who blushed in turn. The waitress came back with their drinks, asking if they were ready to order – to which they both just ordered burgers and some fries. Once the waitress left, the two lapsed back into comfortable conversation – until Daryl perked up.

Frisk noticed that he seemed to have stuttered on something, because as she looked up at him, his eyes were frozen with fear and he seemed to be shaking slightly. “Daryl?” She asked softly, she followed his gaze – and saw a taller, slender man walking towards them. He had a deep smirk on his face, brown eyes that nearly looked red, and light brown hair that was slicked back into a stylish hairstyle. He was wearing a charcoal business suit, with a red vest under it. The man’s eyes trailed onto Daryl’s form, as well as Frisk – who seemed to be observing him openly. The man’s smirk deepened.

He reached their table, stopping at the end of it – both of the patrons staring up at him. One looked terrified, the other looked determined. “Daryl, how are you?” His voice was like velvet, and the way he paused after he said Daryl’s name sent shivers down Frisk’s spine – whoever he was, he was only putting on a polite façade because Frisk was there or because they were in a public place – she wasn’t sure. “I haven’t seen you at work for a couple of days, and I got worried that you might be sick – but here you are, having a date with a beautiful, young woman.” He said, offering his hand out to Frisk. “It’s nice to meet you, love. I’m Chara.” He said.

Frisk wanted to gulp – she felt so uncomfortable in his presence, and she didn’t know why. However, she was raised to be polite to people – so she raised her hand to shake his, but a surprised gasp escaped her mouth as he pressed his lips to the back of her hand. She was shocked to find that they were soft, and smooth. Like he wore chapstick or something. “I’m Frisk.” She said quietly. Chara smiled bigger before turning his attention to Daryl.

“She’s wonderful Daryl, bring her by the office sometime – I’m sure Asriel would love to meet her too.” Chara said and Frisk seen Daryl’s face lose some of it’s color. “Speaking of business, whenever you decide to come back into work, we have some information about the shipment that needs to be taken from Salem to New York – that is,” Chara paused as his eyes flickered between the two. “If you’re up for it.”

“So you’re a shipyard worker?” Frisk asked suddenly. This seemed to have thrown the tense atmosphere out of the room, as Daryl stared at her in shock. Chara also seemed surprised that she had said anything, but his surprise turned into laughter as he put a hand on his head. Frisk raised an eyebrow at what was so funny, but Daryl didn’t say a word.

“In a way, yes, he is a shipyard worker.” Chara managed to say in between laughs. “However, it’s a more intense form of shipyard work.” He said vaguely, his smirk then shrank as he turned his attention back to Daryl – his gaze hardening as he stared at his worker. “We expect you to be at work on Monday at eight o’clock, unless you want to be fired for not telling us you would be missing three consecutive days in a row.” Chara said stiffly, before turning towards Frisk. “Frisk, love, it was a pleasure meeting you.” He then brandished a business card, that was sleek and had neat printing on it. “If you ever want to visit Daryl at work, stop by the main offices and we’ll have someone ring him if he’s on lunch break.” 

Frisk took the card between her hand as Chara said goodbye to the two. She studied the card between her hands – Dreemur Enterprises, huh? She thought to herself before looking up at Daryl who put his head between his hands after Chara had left the restaurant. Chara had left a bad taste in Frisk’s mouth, something was fishy – and she wasn’t sure what. But she knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t no damn shipyard work. She would get down to the bottom of this – no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is so short! I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while now (whoops). I was going to update this on Saturday, but I decided to go ahead and do it now. Thank you so much for reading!


	3. Lies and Warehouses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara has entered chat.

The date with Daryl had been an interesting one, to say the least. Frisk had the card still in her jacket pocket as she went up the stairs to her apartment. The sharp edges turned over in her hand as she climbed up to the fifth floor. ‘Dreemurr Enterprises,’ She thought. She hadn’t heard of that company name before – though a quick Google search could probably say what they dealt with in the shipyard that Daryl seemed to not want Frisk to know about. Frisk got outside of her red door, fumbling with her keys when she heard a quiet cough behind her.

She turned to see her neighbor, a Shyren, who had a beautiful blue tail and bob-styled hair cute of green hair. It covered most of her face, and her hands were clasped in front of her. “Good evening, Frisk.” She said quietly, and Frisk could barely see the bottom of her face – showing that Amelia had a smile on her face. “I was wondering if you would be up at this time.” She said quietly, once more – snapping Frisk out of her reverie.

“Oh, yes! I just got back from a date, how are you, Amelia?” Frisk asked as she turned away from her door.

“I’m just fine, Frisk! I was actually wondering –” Amelia then turned to pull out a pastel pink envelope with cursive handwriting on it. The handwriting was so delicate and neat that it made Frisk want to cry tears of joy that she was receiving something so beautiful. “If you would like to come to a party next Saturday at my place, it’s my birthday and I’ve only been inviting a few close friends.” Amelia explained, and Frisk could see the faint blush that appeared at her cheeks. Frisk felt herself grow happy as a warmth washed over her at the thought that Amelia had considered her a close friend, they had been neighbors for a little over a year, and Frisk had been able to cross paths with her whenever she first moved in.

She remembered that day like it was yesterday, in all honesty.

“I would love to come, Amy!” Frisk said, using the nickname that she gave to the shy monster. “Is there anything specific you want me to bring, food wise?” Frisk was already planning out a present to get the Shyren, and while the young monster thought that she was terrible at singing – Frisk would argue that Amelia was better than Frisk. Frisk had been eyeing a karaoke set that was at a local pawn shop for cheap. The owner had it set up at one point in time to show that it did work, to which Frisk hoped would still be there by the end of tomorrow.

“If you would like to bring some of Shelly’s burgers, that would be amazing!” Amelia said happily. “I already have someone bringing a cake and I’m getting the drinks, so everything else should be fine!” She chirped happily. Amelia gave another smile, and a wave before saying, “Anyways, I need to go – I need to get some sleep before work in the morning, you have a good night, Frisk!”

“You too, Amelia!” Frisk said happily before turning to unlock her door. After unlocking her door, she pushed it open and then stood in shock at what was in her apartment. The mess that she had left grown in size, papers were strewn about from her filing cabinet that was next to a plant, and some family pictures were put in different spots. She didn’t know if she had been robbed – but she knew that something had to have been missing. “Oh, God.” She hissed quietly as she dug in her purse for her mace. She took it out and closed the apartment door, locking it behind her.

She went throughout her apartment, checking the bathroom and her bedroom thoroughly for any staggering thieves that might have stayed behind to cause more trouble. She doubled checked the windows – though she bet that if someone had climbed into her apartment through her window, someone would be able to see them. She shook her head, thinking that maybe she just didn’t lock the door on her way out on her date with Daryl. She then changed into some pajamas before throwing her clothes into a laundry basket. 

Frisk was extremely tired, more so than usual, and it surprised the young adult. She sunk into the comforter on her bed – closing her eyes as she drifted off into sleep. She decided that she had some business that needed to get done tomorrow – something she decided on whenever she left the restaurant with Daryl.  
________________________________________  
Sans walked into the Gaster Incorporated building that towered over the downtown area of Salem. He gave a handwave to some of the workers who would smile or wave at him. Most of them were pleasant, but some of them were always rude in the morning – to which he chalked it up to them needing more coffee in the morning. Sans himself yawned, as he hadn’t had coffee this morning – he usually would have his secretary make him some coffee after he got to work.

While walking towards the elevator, he seen Papyrus talking to a human – who looked annoyed to be talking to him, before the human broke down. Papyrus had an angry look cross his face, to which Sans decided to walk over to where the human woman and Paps was standing at. “What’s wrong, Paps?” Sans asked cautiously. The woman looked at the brother, an embarrassed look on her face.

“Miss Weathers just reported an assault. It appears that it was a monster in the communications department.” Papyrus said in a whisper so that the passerby wouldn’t hear. “Normally I would make her file a formal report with resources, but I think I will do it myself since she is so distraught.” Papyrus said, the woman sniffled. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her hair looked a bit tangled – to which Sans felt pity for. “The monster who did it was Harold, with MTT.” Papyrus said even lower.

Harold was a monster that sort of looked like what the humans would call a devil. His skin was as red as an apple, and his eyes were two slits with a wide, thin smile perfectly implanted on his face. Harold has a wife and kid that live just a few blocks away from the offices, deciding on not to pollute the earth with even more cars. Sans let out an annoyed sigh. “I’ll handle it.” He said gruffly. He then turned to the woman. “Don’t worry ma’am, we’ll have this handled. If you want to take this to court, just tell Paps here and he’ll supply you with the best lawyer we know.” Sans said, giving her a gentle smile.

“Thank you, Mr. Sans and Mr. Papyrus.” She said in between sniffles. “I was scared that no one would believe me, in all honesty.” She said a bit quietly.

“Nah, us monsters – especially me and Paps – we come with lie detectors. Of course, we would believe you.” Sans said with a wink. “Imma go take care of our little problem, you take care ma’am.” Sans nodded before heading back towards the elevator, a scowl had settled on his face as he stared a hole into the glass doors that slid open, allowing workers to pile out and to pile on to the elevator. Sans stepped on, pressing floor number eleven and then went to the back of the elevator. A handful of workers got off on the sixth and seventh floors, but most of them appeared to be going towards the eleventh floor. 

After stepping off of the elevator, Sans scanned the work masses for Harold – his scowl wiping off of his face as he decided to go about a friendly approach. He walked down the aisle, saying hello to the passing humans in their respective cubicles. He stopped at the end of the aisle where he knew that Harold was located at. He leaned cautiously on the side where no one was sitting at, Harold’s horns peeking up above the top of the cubicle, unaware that Sans was looking at him intensely right now. “Hey, so buddy, pal, chum, homeslice breadslice, Harold.” Sans suddenly said, causing the demon-monster to jump up in surprise.

Harold looked over at Sans, and offered him a sly smile. “Oh, heya, boss, what can I do for ya?” He asked, as he stopped typing on his computer and looked up at him. Sans analyzed Harold’s SOUL – the LV had went up a half point, which disgusted the skeleton, making the glare reappear for a second. “You okay, boss?” Sans averted his gaze to the wall ahead of him.

“No, Harold – they’re not.” Sans started. “You’ve been performing poorly within your job duties, your deadlines are not being met and you seem to be causing some problems for your coworkers as well.” Harold’s face fell as he seemed to be raking his mind as to what Sans could be insinuating, before a dark look crossed his face. “Since we’ve had numerous reports about your misconduct – my brothers and I have decided to let you go.” Sans said lowly. He noticed, out the corner of his eye socket, how Harold gripped onto his desk firmly. Sans could practically see all of the outcomes and casualties would happen because of those outcomes. “If you do something stupid,” Sans began in a low voice, barely above a whisper. “I will take you out myself, asshole.”

Harold gulped, the anger replaced with fear. “Fine, do you want me to collect my things then? Be out by the end of the week?” He challenged, an annoyed attitude and cocky air coming about him. “Without me, this place will plummet.” He said sharply.

Sans laughed at this, which drew some attention to the gentlemen and it angered Harold that Sans was laughing at him, “Listen, Harry, we were fine before you – fine with you – and we’ll be fine without you.” Sans paused, his eyelights dimming out and allowing Harold to know just how pissed he was at the moment. “I was gonna say have your shit out by the end of the next two days – but since you’ve got an attitude problem, how about by the end of the hour?” He said, nodding towards a clock that read nine-thirty-three. “You have until ten, dickhead.” He spat before pushing himself up from the desk and walking back to the elevator. “Have a nice day, Harry.” He said as the elevator doors closed, separating him from the demonic-monster.

Sans sighed as he leaned against the metal, back wall of the elevator – the glass doors showing the various floors that he zoomed by. He was heading up to the sixteenth, where Wings was located at. He would have to report about Harold being dismissed from work, and why. ‘He better be glad that I fired him, and Wings didn’t.’ Sans thought as the elevator dinged on the sixteenth floor, allowing the skeleton to get out and head to his older brother’s office. ‘Wings would have literally fired him.’ 

Sans walked to his brother’s office and didn’t bother knocking as he walked into the room, though he probably should have as he realized that his brother was having a meeting with someone. A young adult goat monster was sitting in one of the plush chairs facing Wings’s desk. He looked familiar, but Sans couldn’t put his finger on where he had seen the monster before. The monster and Wings both turned towards the skeleton, Wings scowling as the goat monster looked entertained that Sans had walked in without so much as knocking. “Oh, is this Sans?” The young monster asked.

“Yes, he is.” Wings said. “He runs the marketing operations, while Papyrus runs the monster and human resources department.” Wings explained, before motioning for Sans to come over. Sans walked over, his eye glossing over the monster’s soul – it’s LV was in the midrange, which surprised Sans – but not too much, since from the looks of the monster he looked like someone that belonged in a mob or mafia. “Sans, this is Asriel – the CEO of Dreemurr Enterprises.” Wings explained. Sans offered his hand to the young man, and he did the same. Sans sat in the opposite chair, looking over at Wings briefly. “We were discussing some business, they’re wanting to rent out a shipyard that we own, just for a couple of months.” Wings seemed to have a knowing look on his face that Sans deciphered easily.

“Well that would be no problem, that is, if we knew what ya’ll are shippin’.” Sans said before looking over at Asriel. “No disrespect, Mr. Dreemurr, however, we want to make sure that we ain’t doin’ anythin’…illegal, so to speak.” Sans said before leaning on the side of his arm chair, an interested look on his face as Asriel seemed to be processing the information.

“No, nothing illegal, sir.” Asriel said politely. “Just some cargo that will be shipped to some restaurants that we own on the seaside, shellfish mostly – sometimes plates and cutlery.” He explained. Sans examined him, thoughts running through his mind, but before he could express them Asriel had opened his mouth again to talk some more. “I understand that a big businesss like yours, wouldn’t have something to do with a small business like mine. In retrospect, it is risky – however, you do own a large number of shipyards.” Asriel then paused. “It’ll only be for four months, until we can pull out a loan of our own closer to one of the restaurants that Chara and I frequent.” He explained quickly.

“Which restaurant is that?” Sans asked.

“It’s a Silver John’s down close to Main Street, on the east side of the down town area – near the pier next to the park.” Asriel said. “We were thinking about buying some stock in the fast food chain in hopes of getting a better foothold within our own business.” He explained. Sans looked over at Wings, who seemed to be evaluating the choices. Sans already knew the answer though, and just relaxed against the seat – waiting for his own brother to speak.

“I suppose that we could allow that, just for four months you said?” Wings asked, prompting Asriel to nod. “Alright then, we’ll have a contract typed up within the week – you and Chara will both need to be present to sign it, as well as myself and two brothers.” Wings said and then stood up, Asriel following suit and they both shook hands. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Asriel Dreemurr.” Wings said.

“You as well, Mr. and Mr. Gaster.” Asriel said, turning to Sans and shaking his hand as well. “I shall see you later this week, Friday?” Wings nodded and Asriel said one final good-bye before Wings escorted him to the door of his office. He closed the door, waiting for Asriel’s footsteps to disappear before he returned to his desk – sighing annoyedly. He sat down, rubbing his hands across his face – as if that would rub the sleep away.

“The only reason why I agreed, is because something is fishy about this business.” Wings said after a short sigh. “I don’t know what those two siblings have planned, but I don’t like it.” Sans watched as his brother began going through files that were under official paperwork that Asriel hadn’t seen. “All that I could find on them is that Chara is adopted, and that their parents died in the Underground before coming up to the surface. Natural causes, supposedly, but they’re far too young for their parents to die at such a premature death.” Wings observed quietly. Sans raised a brow bone before looking off to the side. “But why would they need a shipyard.”

“Didn’t you hear him? They totally run a legal, nonsuspicious seafood restaurant gig.” Sans said sarcastically, causing Wings to scowl at his younger brother. “You can ship anything through shipyards, why they would want one of ours leaves me clueless.” Sans said. “Monster traffickin’, human traffickin’, soul traffickin’, or even weapons – there is no tellin’, Wings.” Sans said. He then paused, an unsettling quiet covering the office as Sans looked out a window that showed off the city. “We should just keep a close eye socket on them though, after the contract is final.” He muttered.

“Agreed.” Wings said. “And there is another thing, that made me distrust him.” Sans turned to his brother, raising a brow bone. “The Silver John’s he described?”

“What about it?” Sans asked.

“It went out of business three years ago.”   
________________________________________  
Chara, annoyed, was not a pretty sight to behold. In fact, whenever he was annoyed – most of the workers would just avoid him in hopes that he wouldn’t fire them just for looking at him funny. His eyes slanted as he maneuvered his way around the warehouse that he and his adoptive brother rented out, and then bought, a year prior. Chara walked to the back of the warehouse, where a makeshift office was made – sealing off Asriel from the mayhem that was wrapping the warehouse into it’s fold.

Chara muttered something under his breath as he opened the door, Asriel looking up – a smile crossing his face as he seen his older, adoptive brother. “Chara – so nice of you to finally stop in.” Asriel said happily, and Chara’s glare lessened but still remained, as he was obviously annoyed about something or another. “Well, whatever is wrong this time, brother?” Asriel asked a bit playfully, much to Chara’s displeasure. “Is it another employee that need to be ‘taken’ care of?” Asriel asked.

“I don’t think that we can do that this time, Asriel.” Chara said after a groan before throwing himself onto an arm chair to sit on. “This human is a bit of a hassle, he’s hiding behind the skirt of another human – hoping that because she knows him, that he’ll keep her safe.” Chara spat out, a scowl crossing his face as his mind wandered back to the night of when he encountered Daryl and the girl that he was out on a date with – Frisk. “And it will, for now – until she dumps him.” Chara said bitterly.

“And what did he do that’s so bad about him needing to be removed from the work place, Chara?” Asriel asked with a slight hint of annoyance laced within his voice. Oh he wouldn’t be annoyed when he found out that the employee would have been leaking secrets to other companies that functioned off of the same of the same resources that Chara and Asriel were pumping in and out of the city like clockwork. He would want him taken care of as fast as possible.

“He’s planning on quitting, and he’s already leaked information that we’ve had under lock and key for a while now – the only way he got a hold of it was because I trusted him.” Chara said bitterly as he looked off to the side. “He had proven to be capable of handling meager tasks, working his way up in the shipyard to a supervisor – eventually he managed to worm his way into becoming a partial secretary for me.”

“I didn’t know you liked men.” Asriel said with a smirk.

“Shut up.” Chara barked, a blush crossing his face. “Nevertheless, he’s been supplying other companies with information of our clients that only we needed to know in order to have a stronger hold in the community of Salem, Asriel.” Chara stood up and walked over to a wall that held a window – so that Asriel could keep check of the workers that were within the warehouse. “If we don’t take care of him, not only will his debt not be paid off – but we will lose a good chunk of profit from not just clients, but suppliers as well.” 

Asriel sighed, cupping his hands under his chin. He seemed to be thinking about something – deeply – and then let out a sigh, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s easy, kill him and the skirt that he’s hiding behind – it’s as simple as one, two, three.” Asriel said, and then his eyes narrowed. “That is, unless there is something holding you back from doing it, Chara.” Chara paused, before turning back to Asriel.

“She’s a looker.” Chara eventually said. “I thought about weaseling my way into her life, and convincing her to break up with Daryl, eventually losing contact with him so that when he does disappear – she’ll just assume that we’ve relocated him to another part of the company.” Chara said, Asriel felt a smirk cross his face as he stood up as well. He moved towards his adoptive brother and threw an arm around his shoulders – a laugh escaping his mouth as he did.

“Ah, so you’ve finally found someone that you’re in love with?” Asriel asked.

“Hardly,” Chara said. He couldn’t let Asriel know the truth about what he knew about Frisk – Chara had met Frisk before, back when they were kids – he remembered her, and when he had seen her at Grillby’s, he was hoping that she would remember him as well. However, disappearing into the Underground for a good portion of their life didn’t help the fact that they were only five or six years old when they last saw each other. Frisk was Chara’s first crush, and something that he didn’t plan on letting go easily. “I’ll put the plan into motion immediately, I won’t waste any time in trying to woo her.”

“Well, you better hurry it up.” Asriel said. “I had a meeting with those skeletons today – we have a shipyard of theirs now, we have to sign the contract by the end of the week unless we want to lose more profit.” Asriel went to his desk and picked up a file, it was a dark red color – with some paper sticking out. It was a thick file, and Chara could see sticky notes sticking out in every direction. “This is the list of supplies that the gang wants – everything from weapons to human trafficking.” Asriel said before handing the file to Chara. “Deliver it to the main office, give it to Kid, she’ll be able to deliver it to the right department before the end of the day.”

Chara immediately opened it ang began looking through it, Asriel watched as Chara’s smirk became even wider. “It’s like there’s a war going on over there.” Chara said, giving a short chuckle. Weapons – mostly guns, but military grade grenades were also wanted – was listed for the majority of the file, finally settling on some specific humans and monsters that they wanted trafficked for a club that the gang owned on the other side of town. Forced prostitution was something that Chara didn’t care for, but it paid well whenever they time came for their clients to pay up for their services. “What’s this?” Chara asked, peeling off a sticky note. It was pink, and had four words scratched onto it carelessly. The handwriting wasn’t Asriel’s – in fact none of this was, allowing Chara to believe that the gang had came up with the file themselves. Still, the words made him sick.

‘We want a child.’

Asriel looked at the sticky note, disgust crossing his face. “Throw that away, I didn’t get a chance to go through it – but double check that there are no more pedophilia requests.” He snapped, taking the note away and using his fire magic to burn the note. There was one thing that the two brothers always drew a line at – which surprised Chara, to say the least – no children should be involved in this heinous world around them. Chara nodded, delving deeper into the file – triple checking that the sticky note he found was the only sick request within this. “Does it look okay now?” Asriel asked. 

Chara gave a stiff nod, and Asriel did the same. “I’ll take this back to headquarters, when you get the chance you should call Daryl in here and have a chat with him about demoting him. Especially since he missed three days of work.” Asriel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but you are a little harsher on the employees than I am, brother.” Chara said before winking at his younger brother. “I’ll be on my way out – and don’t wait up for me tonight, I have something I need to attend to before I come home.” Chara said, walking out of the office and heading towards the exit of the warehouse.

As he was exiting, he passed by Daryl – who looked paler than normal. Just as they passed one another, an announcement came on the speakers, letting everyone know that Daryl Jenns had to come to Asriel’s office. Chara smirked as he seen a tremor pass through Daryl’s being, but he stiffly started walking faster – this time in the direction of the office, and not in the direction of the aisle that he was walking towards. Chara liked having power over some people – the people that were weak, and afraid. It was something that he craved for, it was like a delicacy to him whenever he encountered someone that wouldn’t immediately bend to his will. Because, eventually, he knew one thing was true.

He could get anyone to do anything for him, with a little ‘persuasion’.  
________________________________________  
Frisk stared in awe at the man that was in front of her, the mischievous glint in his eye as he sat at a booth – her booth, in particular, on this cold Sunday night. She gulped, not wanting to serve him, but when she seen Diane’s face she knew that she wouldn’t be getting any help from her. ‘Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut yesterday.’ Frisk thought bitterly as she made her way towards the man that she had met the previous night. Chara seemed to be in a good mood, he didn’t look as angry as he did whenever he stopped by Grillby’s to talk to Daryl.

Frisk stopped beside his booth, a menu in hand and a polite smile on her face. ‘Just act polite, and if he recognizes you – be polite, you got this, Frisky.’ She thought. “Hello! I hope you’re having a good evening tonight, sir. What can I get for you to drink?” She asked, pulling out her notepad and pen. Chara feigned shock when he seen her, and gave her a polite smile.

“My, my, isn’t it Frisk?” He asked politely. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, love.” His eyes held something within them that Frisk couldn’t quite put her finger on. Though he was trying to portray a air of innocence, and politeness – Frisk couldn’t help but notice the underlying snake that he was actually trying to hide. Normally, she would call bullshit on him then and there – but since she didn’t know him that well, she would have to bite her tongue.

For now.

“Oh! I almost didn’t recognize ya’.” Frisk lied lamely, “It’s nice to see you again as well, Mr. Dreemurr.” She said. Chara’s eyes glowered a bit before he replaced it with a fake sort of happiness, his smile seemed to have stretched wider as his eyes narrowed – looking into her own, as he seemed to be analyzing her. It made Frisk feel uncomfortable – and she wanted to scream, but she settled for curling her toes in her shoes until her feet cramped, prompting her to stop.

“Please, call me Chara – Mr. Dreemurr is my father.” Chara said, though it was a cliché line to say – Frisk had to admit he had some class when it spilled from his lips. “After all, I don’t know your last name – so would you prefer me to call you Miss Frisk?” He asked, and from his tone Frisk would assume he was being playful with her. ‘I prefer you wouldn’t call me anythin’, ya creep.’ She thought, trying to keep her body from shuddering.

“No, Frisk is fine, Chara.” She said while offering up a sweet smile to the other. “Anyways, what can I get for you to drink?” She tried again. She really hoped that he would just order and shut up – not trying to start a conversation with her again. His presence made her feel uneasy, and from the way Mikey had pointed him out earlier, even he didn’t like the bastard that had shown up, quite literally, out of thin air. 

Frisk inspected his face once more – wondering if it was possible that he could be part monster. She knew that there were some half-monster, half-humans walking around but they were hard to point out. Most of them looked like normal humans, they just had magic that monsters normally had. And they had this insane energy that just radiated off of them, making most people feel either comfortable or on edge. And Frisk?

Well, she felt on-fucking-edge.

“A water will be fine, love.” He said politely, and Frisk scribbled it down – he watched as she seemed to practically leap away from his table to go get it fixed. Chara muttered something under his breath that Frisk couldn’t hear – but she didn’t know if she wanted to hear it or not. She sighed once she was behind the counter, and she felt Diane approach her.

“You okay, Frisky?” Diane whispered into her ear. Diane seemed to have been staring intensely at Chara, and Frisk – for once – was thankful that Diane didn’t care for someone sitting in Frisk’s booth. “He gives me bad vibes, honey, if you want me to serve him – I will.” She said politely. Frisk looked into Diane’s eyes. Diane still cared for Frisk, and while they did have a little spat – Frisk knew that Diane would forgive her for snapping on her the other day. Frisk was nearly about to accept when the front door jingled open. Diane’s eyes widen, causing Frisk to whip her head around to the front door.

Her own eyes widened at the sight in front of her.

The shorter skeleton was back, and he seemed to be staring holes at Chara. Chara must have felt someone staring at him, because he turned around to look at the skeleton. A glare crossed his face and Frisk nearly wanted to scream. It seemed like they both knew each other – or at least, maybe, knew of each other. It could be possibly since they were both part of independent companies that may or may not rival with each other. 

‘Please don’t fight in the diner, please don’t fight in the diner, please don’t fight in the diner.’ Frisk repeated over and over again in her head as she quickly made Chara’s drink and practically sprinted over towards his table. She placed the cup down rather loudly, but had a polite small on her face as she handed him a straw. “Here you go, sir, sorry to keep you waiting. Are you ready to order now?” She asked. Chara had shock cross his face as his gaze was ripped away from Sans – who seemed just as shocked that Frisk had done something like that – but recovered quickly and offered her a smile.

“Well, you see, what I want isn’t on the menu.” Chara said a bit shyly at first. Frisk was confused, before she decided to speak.

“Well, if you want something specific, Mikey can cook whatever you want him to.” She said, motioning towards the cook who ducked behind the wall when Chara went to go stare at him.

“Oh no, love, not of food wise.” He said a bit more slowly, he seemed to be trying to get his confidence back. “You see, I want your number.”

Frisk thought that she would have been prepared for most things that would be thrown her way during her waitressing career – but that was something that she wasn’t prepared for, at least, not from him. He had literally seen her on a date with Daryl the other night – why was he asking for her number now? Surely it should be known that she was spoken for? At least, she thought she was. “Um, I don’t know,” She began.

“Ah, how rude of me.” He suddenly said. “You were on a date with a employee of mine – I didn’t even think about it before coming here and asking you.” He said, rubbing the back of his head – shy once again. “I just have a hard time around pretty women is all, I suppose. And I guess seeing him with you, it just kind of surprised me is all.” Chara said with a shrug.

“What do you mean?” Frisk asked, crossing her arms an angry expression crossing her face.

“I-I didn’t mean it like that!” Chara said – blush crossing his face as he realized how bad it sounded. “I-I just mean that he already has a girlfriend is all.” He explained, trying to keep the short girl from flipping a table and clobbering him. Chara never thought that he would actually be afraid of someone, much less Frisk. Frisk’s facial expression went from one to angry, to one of disbelief as the words left Chara’s mouth. This had to be a lie, isn’t it? But why would he tell her if Daryl had a girlfriend or not?

Most people just go on their merry way after finding out about someone cheating, not saving either unsuspecting victim from the future that was about to fall on them.

“W-What?” She asked, her voice faltering.

“Now, why do you have to go an lie to the pretty lady like that.” Frisk turned, to see Sans behind her – a unreadable look on his face as he looked down at Chara. “You think she’s attractive, that’s why you don’t want her to date that other guy – tell her the truth, it’ll be better in the long run.” He said. Frisk whipped her head around to stare at Chara – who seemed to be nervous. “Which, I don’t think she would date someone like you either.”

“What do you mean by that, skeleton?” Chara asked.

“Someone who lies.”

“Well I don’t think she would go for a sack of bones, either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is 3:30 AM and I just finished writing chapter three. End me.


	4. Sans and Chara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk is nosey.

Frisk managed to wedge herself between the two men – fear creeping in on her form at the thought of a fight breaking out between the two. “Gentlemen, calm down – please.” Frisk begged, opting to put a hand on either of their shoulders. They both turned to look at her. “If neither of you calm down, I will have to ask you to leave.” Frisk said suddenly. And it was true, if a fight did break out she would have to try to get Mikey to stop it – highly doubt he would, the big crybaby – while she called the cops. Diane peeked at the three from behind the counter, a glower settling on her face.

Or Diane, definitely Diane. She could throw hands like no one’s business whenever something happened to one of her friends. And one of her friends was standing in the middle of a monster v. human fight. Sans looked over at Frisk, letting out a sigh as he calmed down. He looked like a cat that was ready to fight, but once he back off – he looked like a normal skeleton that seemed to be avoiding Frisk’s gaze. She looked over at Chara, who still held a glare on his face, but crossed his arms over his chest before looking off to the side. It seemed, that for now, the fight that they were wanting to instigate was called off for now. 

“I have no idea what has gotten into you two, but you both need to calm down.” Frisk said, this time she was gentle with both of them. Chara let out a huff before grabbing his suit jacket and turned on his heel towards the door. “Chara – where are you going?” Frisk called out to the young man. He stopped at the door and turned on his heel to stare at the young girl. He held a glare on his face, but it softened ever so slightly when he looked at her.

“I just remembered I have a meeting to attend to with my brother – I’m sorry that I have to rain check on getting your number, love.” Chara said with a wink before waving and disappearing out of the door. Frisk felt herself blush, from embarrassment and anger, and she shook her head – slapping herself on her cheeks, causing the skeleton behind her to jump slightly in surprise. 

“You okay, doll face?” Sans asked. “If he’s botherin’ ya, lemme or Paps know – we’ll file a police report for ya.” Sans said as Frisk turned to face him. The skeleton looked slightly worried, and his eye lights were trained on the door, and presumably, Chara’s form, before the man turned a corner and he looked back down at Frisk. “I mean, technically, you are an employee – and safety comes first before you stress about your job.” Sans said. Frisk felt flattered that her new boss was worried about her, but she didn’t really have a problem with Chara.

Yet.

“Ah, no, it’s fine, boss.” She said, waving her hand dismissively. “I’ve had to deal with people like him before and it’s all turned out fine before.” She said, offering him a smile. She seen something pass through the skeleton’s body – like a tremor. His facial expression changed as well, and Frisk was surprised at what she had seen. “Nothin’ bad has happened to me, I have mace on me at all times.” She said. It seems that Sans must have gotten the wrong idea from what she had said – he looked disturbed that something, along the lines of rape, might have happened to Frisk.

“Still, if anything were to happen, you can always talk to me or Paps about it.” Sans said – and when Frisk gave him a look, he then retracted himself. “O-Or, if you don’t feel comfortable, we also have a female monster that will be more than happy to help – her name is Undyne.” He said quickly. Frisk gave him a soft smile, she was glad at what he had said. “She is another monster and human resource director – but she’s not really ever in the main office, she usually goes around business to business to check on everyone. She might pop in here one day.” He said nodding his head, looking over at the door. He was rambling now.

Frisk was actually worried that once ‘Shelly’s’ would be under new management, that it would be a business that didn’t really care about their employees. She thought that maybe the raise they offered was just an attempt at gaining the employees’ trust, but now that he seemed to be concerned about her – and more than likely other employees – she couldn’t help but feel her heart warm at the thought. Shelly didn’t sell out, like she had worried about, it seemed that she did her research with business partners to better herself and the employees. “Well, thank you, Mr. Sans.” She said with another smile. “I was actually worried.” 

She then guided him to a booth on the other side of a diner. “Why is that?” He asked, curiosity was in his voice as he sat down. He looked up at her, and he seemed to be messing with his hands. A knowing look crossed his face. “The company that my brothers and I run is actually a family business – we’ve always had it in the family, the CEO can’t really be replaced by an outsider.” He said with a shrug. “We started out small, with little to nothin’ to our names – when we finally had enough stock and had earned a name for ourselves, it was like we finally made it.” He said.

Frisk watched as he paused, looking at the menu that was in front of him. He seemed to be holding something back, and Frisk wasn’t sure what – but she was all ears if he had something he wanted to talk about. He shook his head, and then leaned back, his eye lights scanning over the menu carefully once again. “But we still felt empty – so we decided that we wanted to help people, people with small businesses like Mrs. Bries. People that we thought should be a big business because they work hard.” 

“And how do you know that they work hard?” Diane suddenly asked, she seemed to have walked over without either of them noticing. She had her arms crossed, but she didn’t have a scowl on her face – no instead, she seemed curious as she looked over at the monster in front of her. “I mean, no disrespect Mr. Gaster, but for all you know – she could have been fakin’ it ‘til she made it.” Diane said, sheepishly looking off to the side.

“That’s actually a good question, Miss Diane.” Sans said. “Well, it was simple – we asked around the neighborhood about how honest of a woman she is, how hard working she is, how she treats her employees – things like that.”

“Why?” Diane suddenly asked. “Why would you care about all of that stuff?”

“Well, we would rather work with people who want to better themselves – Wings especially.” Sans said, a far off look on his face. “We’ve had bad run-ins with business that didn’t give a shit about their employees and treated them like shit-,” he cut himself off – a red tint covering his cheeks. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to swear in front of you two – but we’ve just seen some pretty bad stuff.” He said.

“That’s why you had the business meeting here, isn’t it?” Frisk asked, a revelation coming to her mind. That would explain why they had it here, even Shelly was confused as to why they wanted to have the meeting here – but she didn’t complain, just rushed around making sure that it was clean enough for a big company like them a couple days before the meeting. Frisk remembered helping, since she was eighty-five percent sure her hands still smelled like bleach. She wanted to shiver at how red she made her hands that night from trying to scrub away the scent that burned her nose hairs.

“So they’re actually good people?” Diane spoke allowed. “I was actually scared you wouldn’t care about us.” Diane said, a genuine smile crossing her face – this surprised Frisk, as well as Sans. “Then I suppose I can trust you, after all that raise you gave us was extremely generous – I can actually get caught up on bills now.” Diane joked and Frisk chuckled. Sans looked at them from the corner of his eye.

“If it’s not enough, I can talk to Wings-”

“No, no!” Frisk said suddenly, Diane’s and her face paling considerably. “It is more than enough! It’s just a waitressing joke that we’ve had for a while,” Frisk said quickly, scratching the back of her head. Sans seemed to relax, but his expression held disbelief. “Honestly!” Frisk said, and Diane leaned onto Frisk, nodding her head. “A-Anyways, what can I get for you today, Mr. Sans?” She asked, trying to desperately change the subject. Sans looked back at the menu and then her.

“I guess I could get another burger – wouldn’t hurt anything.” He said with a shrug. Frisk wrote it down, and then turned to leave. “You didn’t ask what I wanted to drink, Miss Frisk.” He said suddenly. Frisk turned and gave him a small smile.

“Mustard?” She asked. He blinked, and a red tint came across his face as he rubbed the back of his skull. “That kinda drink is hard to forget whenever someone tells you that’s what they want – so I just figured. Unless, you want sweet tea.” She said, ready to erase the original “drink” that she wrote down.

“No, mustard is fine.” He said with a nod. Frisk gave a parting smile before her and Diane went behind the counter, Diane leaned against it – looking over at Sans before going back to stare at Frisk who attached the receipt to the metal order wheel and spun it so that Mike would be able to see his order. When she turned around, she nearly jumped from the intense look on Diane’s face.

“What?” Frisk asked.

“I want to apologize.” Diane suddenly said. “I judged him without much thought – and I’m sorry.” Diane said, she looked to her feet. Whenever Diane apologized, it was genuine, but Frisk knew that she still didn’t trust Sans fully, which didn’t really surprise frisk all that much, but it still irked her to some degree. “However, I do think something is still up with him. I don’t know what that is though. He seemed to be hiding something whenever he was talking about his business, there is something that he still doesn’t want us to know.

Frisk bit the inside of her lip to keep from yelling at Diane. So what he wanted to keep something from them? If they came from a rough background, she wouldn’t be surprised that he wanted to keep that from them – though all of the employees in the diner did come from a poor background, so he shouldn’t be ashamed of that. “So? Diane, we don’t know everything about him – and he doesn’t know everything about us, I don’t blame him from no wanting to dump everything on us at once.” Frisk said. “Don’t apologize if you’re still not sorry.” She said stiffly.

“Frisk – I, shit, I am – honestly.” Diane said, and gave a long sigh. “It’s just, I don’t know. He just seems like he might be hiding something big from us, for all I know it could be that he’s planning a fucking Christmas part or something, I don’t know.” Diane then looked to the side and rubbed the back of her head, she seemed to be stuck on something. “I’m just worried, about you, you’re my best friend – like a little sister, and I-I get the feeling that he might like you a little too much.” Diane said, barely above a whisper.

Frisk stared at Diane, tilting her head to the side as she evaluated her best friend. So Diane got the feeling that Sans like her? So what? “Whoever I date or don’t date is no business of yours.” Frisk said without thinking. And it was true, she didn’t bug Diane constantly about her and Cailee, so why should Diane bother her about whoever she was dating? Not that Frisk would date Sans, or Chara for that matter, just on the alone fact that she barely knew either one of them – and on top of that she was dating Daryl. 

Daryl.

She still had to talk to him about where he worked at and what kind of work he did for a living – it was eating her up at the thought that he could be doing something illegal. He was such a nice guy, decent too, that it just seemed wrong for him to be involved with a crowd like that. She let out a sigh and began rubbing her head. “Look, it doesn’t matter either way – I’m sure he’s not interested in me, and I know that I’m not interested in him.” 

“Only because you just met him.” Mike quipped from the kitchen. Frisk whipped her head around suddenly, the young man giving her a cheeky smile. “Let’s face it, Frisk, if you get to know him and you like his personality – you’ll start liking him.” Mike said with a wink. Frisk rolled her eyes, though it was true, and she turned her attention back to Diane who had an expectant look on her face. “But she’s right Diane – you can’t control who she dates and who she doesn’t, we don’t do that with you and Cailee.” He said.

“Excuse you, what is wrong with my goddess?” She snapped suddenly, looking at him bewildered. Mike ducked quickly behind the half wall as Diane threw a pen in his direction. “Face me like a man, Mike!” She yelled, running to the kitchen where Mike screamed in fear and Frisk could hear pots crashing in the kitchen as Mike ran past the window in a blur – Diane right on his heels. Frisk laughed and shook her head.

“Everything alright back there?” Sans’s voice was on the other side of the counter, and Frisk turned to see him with a concerned look on his face. Frisk chuckled before nodding, moving towards him.

“Yeah, just never say anything about Diane’s fiancée and you’ll be fine.” Frisk said. “Cailee is like the sun and moon to her.” Frisk said with another chuckle. “They’re cute together, but Mike has a problem with Cailee – she uses Diane a bit, which bothers both of us.” Frisk said in a low voice so the two in the back wouldn’t hear them. Not like they probably could, since there were yells and swearing floating into the front of the diner.

“Well that ain’t any good for the little lady.” Sans said with a sigh. Frisk looked over at Sans, who was watching through the window in amusement. His permanent smile seemed to have grown wider as he chuckled at the two. “They remind me of my brother Wings and I, fighting like cats and dogs.” He said with another laugh. Frisk couldn’t help but laugh along with him. It was true, Diane and Mike were like siblings – but so were they with Frisk. The three were truly inseparable. 

“We all grew up together.” Frisk said, after the fighting in the back reduced to just two arguing voices. “We might as well be brother and sisters, in all honesty. I mean – we were the first to know that Diane is lesbian, her parents didn’t find out until they caught her fooling around with an ex of her’s.” She said. “And then we were the first to know that Mike would become a parent at sixteen, his girlfriend – now wife – was pregnant with their two twin boys, Jason and Max.” Frisk suddenly sighed, and a happy smile crossed her face.

All of the memories that she made with her two friends were resurfacing to her mind that they had from when they were five to now. She couldn’t imagine life without them – there couldn’t be any way, and while they did fight, they would always make up with one another and support the other no matter their decision. “Hey, you okay?” Sans asked. Frisk looked over at him. “Hey, don’t cry – it’s okay, I don’t know what’s wrong, but it’ll be fine.” He said and then produced a red handkerchief, to which Frisk finally realized the hot tears that were spilling down her face. She laughed, as she accepted it.

“Oh, don’t mind me – just happy tears.” She said, waving her other hand. Sans relaxed and Frisk folded the handkerchief up again. “Sorry, I was just reminiscing on some old memories – I just miss when we were kids, playin’ at the park and causing mayhem when we were twelve. What I would do to go back to do it all again.” She said with a sigh. She then handed the handkerchief back to him, a small smile appearing once again. “Sorry about that, I hope that I didn’t ruin it with my makeup.” 

Sans put up a hand and waved. “It’s fine, doll face, you can keep it – I have several more back home. It won’t hurt to give away one.” He said before studying her face more closely. Frisk felt her cheeks heat up and she looked off to the side. She heard Diane yelling at Mike about leaving Cailee out of arguments, and Mike started laughing – apologizing. Frisk then realized that she hadn’t grabbed mustard for Sans and cursed quietly.

“Sorry, I’ll be right back – I need to get you your mustard.” She said apologetically. She then dashed to the back and grabbed a bottle, when she returned she was surprised to see that Mike had returned to the front, with Diane, and was laughing along with Sans. She neared the group, and listened it – wondering what they were talking about. Mike seemed to be laughing about the fight that he and Diane just had.

“It looked like she got you good there,” Sans said, motioning his hand over his right cheek – to which Mike went to touch and then winced. Diane and Sans chuckled at this when Mikey let out a swear before turning to Diane.

“It’s no fair! You know I won’t fight back because I think it’s wrong.” Mike grumbled, to which Diane rolled her eyes.

“The thought of you thinking you can fight back makes me laugh, Mikey.” Diane said with a chuckle. Mike sent a playful glare before giving her a toothy grin, turning his head back to Sans. He seemed entertained by the two humans, and Frisk felt a sigh of relief wash over her that they were finally getting along with one another. Or at least, Diane would make Sans think that she was finally getting along with him. Frisk gave a soft smile as she set the bottle down in front of Sans, who thanked her in turn.

“You drink mustard straight from the bottle?” Mike blurted out. “That’s fucking insane man – I don’t think I could ever do that.” Mike said, his face paling as he must be imagining a huge stomach ache. He rubbed his stomach, confirming Frisk’s thoughts. Sans raised a brow bone, his eye lights dimming ever so slightly, but Mikey seen it and immediately went to explain himself. “I just mean, that I would get an insane stomach ache – I can barely stomach the stuff, it’s a bad memory.”

“And a long story.” Frisk spoke up before giving Mike a knowing look. Mike and mustard don’t mix, and when Sans peeled off the protective sticker – Mike looked like he was about to vomit. “Go make his food, Mikey – so you won’t vomit on him.” Frisk said, giving him a gently nudge towards the kitchen. Diane snickered a bit, to which Sans raised an eyebrow bone.

“A chef that can’t stand the smell of a condiment? Now I think I have heard everything.” He said with a light chuckle.

“Oh you should see his face whenever someone says to add mustard to a burger.” Diane said with another snicker. “He has to either get me or Frisk to put it on for him like he’s some kinda kid.” She said in between snickers. Sans himself chuckled, probably imaging Mike whining about putting mustard on a burger. “I feel bad for Missy – poor girl, she married a fool.”

“I heard that!” A yell from the kitchen had the three young adults laughing, and Frisk shook her head as she looked over at Sans who seemed to be enjoying himself. She didn’t know what to think of the skeleton to be entirely honest. When they first met, he came off as malicious towards the human – however that could have been just a defensive mechanism he would conjure whenever he thought that he could be up against a racist. So she didn’t really mind it all that much, but aside from the first impression she couldn’t help but think how laid back he was.

He was a pretty approachable person, which surprised Frisk. Whenever she imagine a CEO, or a co-CEO, she imagined someone with their nose stuck so high in the air that they didn’t realize how big of an asshole they were. With posh suits and expensive cars, not really caring about the people that were less fortunate than them. She peered over at Sans who was telling a story to Diane, who actually seemed genuinely interested. There was a part of him, that he wanted to share with her earlier – but he didn’t. She didn’t know why, and it bothered her.

Frisk liked to think that she was an open ear and shoulder to talk and cry on if anyone ever needed it. She wanted to help people, she couldn’t help it – it was in her nature to be there for people that needed her, whether they knew it or not. She let out a content sigh, she knew that there were people who wanted to be viewed as strong – that they never let their mental state slip so bad that they would need therapy or a good cry, and in a way she respected that. But, the more strong you try to be, the harder you’ll crash when you’ve decided that you had enough. She’s been there before – after she didn’t tell Sans what she told Mike and Diane before she ever told her parents.

She had been struggling with depression since she was twelve, after going to a doctor it was chalked up to clinical depression where it was hereditary – she couldn’t really do anything about it. At one point in time, when she was fifteen, her depression got so bad that she had flushed the prescription pills that her psychiatrist had prescribed to her – convinced that they weren’t helping her and were delaying the inevitable, she shuddered at the memory. Mike and Diane had been the ones to talk her out of doing something that couldn’t be reversed.

She looked over at Diane, who was laughing at Sans’s story. Frisk smiled, happy that they had – happy that she was still here with her two best friends that have helped her through so much. Mike brought out Sans’s burger from the kitchen and placed it at the counter, joining the conversation with the two. He laughed, and Frisk’s heart warmed once more at the sight in front of her. She couldn’t picture life without them, they had made her mentality so much better, to the point that she was convinced her depression was nearly erased.

“You okay, Frisky?” Diane asked, looking back at her friend. Diane gave her a soft smile, but there was worry in her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine, D.” Frisk chirped happily – joining the three. “I was just reminding myself about the one time when Mike screamed because I threw mustard at him.” Mike groaned as Diane cackled at the memory – to which Sans’s eyes sparked and a low laugh escaped him as well. Frisk chuckled as Diane began telling the story, and her eyes looked over at Sans. She liked this – even though he was her boss – she liked that he might soon become a part of their group. Sans looked back at her, and offered her a smile.

This seemed like such a happy memory.  
________________________________________  
He was quickly rummaging around her apartment – he was trying to find it, the thing that would help him regain a foothold within the company. But where was it?! He had searched her living room mostly, pulling papers out of the coffee table and stands that were on either side of the couch. He rummaged through her drawers of the dresser that was in the living room under a window. He even flipped over the carpet that was under the coffee table, hoping that it would be there.

But nothing.

Nothing could be found, and it drove him insane. He was about to scream in anger and frustration when he heard the key be placed into the lock. He felt his heart drop as he moved back towards the window. He watched, fearfully, as the key turned the lock over – the click being heard. He looked around, wondering what to do – before he heard her stop opening the door to talk to someone. The neighbor. Or at least, he thought it was the neighbor – he wasn’t sure. He shook his head and took one more sweep over the apartment as he heard them begin to talk.

This just bought him a little more time to investigate the apartment – but he still turned up nothing when he heard them saying farewell to one another. He uttered a curse word before a popping noise filled his ears as he teleported out of her apartment and back to his own house. He couldn’t get caught in such tastelessness that it would allow the others to know that he existed. He caused this on his own, and he would fix this on his own – he had to. He leaned against his bedroom door, which was in poor condition. The house he was living in general was in poor condition.

It would probably take all of his magic just to fix the place up for free, and he didn’t have that kind of time to waste in this town. He moved towards the mattress that was shoved against the wall – it was a ratty mattress that he had found in the dump a block away from his house. He had thrown a torn sheet on it, followed by a comforter that looked outdated, but was in still good condition. It wasn’t much, but this was what he called home. At least for now. When he would get his hands on the charm, he would be able to go back to his real home.

He had to, he had so many people relying on him to get home. 

He had to push through for them.

To bring them to the Surface as well.  
________________________________________  
It was Tuesday, and Frisk was walking down the street – following the address on her card to the main company building of Dreemurr Enterprises. Her hazel gaze looked over the area that it was in – a better part of the city, where the parks were being maintained by city workers and everyone seemed to have a smile on their face. It wasn’t snowing or raining today, in fact, the sun was out – but the snow that had came the previous days was still there due to it being so cold outside.

They were supposed to get another storm within a day or two anyways. She let out a sigh as she looked up at a rather large building, the windows on it were reflective and shown off the building across from it, and what part of the walls she could see – it appeared to be white bricks placed neatly on top of one another. It was a fancy place, to say the less, and it didn’t surprise her when she had seen it. ‘Okay, Frisky,’ She thought, ‘The guy likes ya, so maybe you could get an audience with him and get a couple of straight answers.’ She bit the inside of her lip.

After showing up to the large building in front of her and not some slum in the bad part of town, Frisk was now convinced that maybe Daryl was part of an honest business – and that she had nothing to worry about and she could continue to date him. However, her gut had never been wrong before in the past so another part of her – her reasonable side, she called it, was telling her that something was up and she needed to stick her nose into it.

Okay, so maybe she ‘didn’t’ need to stick her nose into it, but she still felt the need to after what had happened on Saturday and Sunday. She grabbed her shoulder strap closer to her, hugging her purse a little bit closer to her as she walked into the revolving doors. Upon entering the building, it was extremely warm – not too warm, but the perfect temperature, rather – and was greeted by a secretary off to her right. The secretary was pretty, she was a monster that kind of looked like a cat. Her fur was a light blue color and she had black hair neatly styled into a bun. Her clothes were strictly professional, and looked so ironed that Frisk thought she would cut her finger on an edge from how sharp they looked.

“How may I help you ma’am?” The cat purred out happily while Frisk snapped out of whatever reverie she had been in. Frisk moved, going closer to the secretary’s desk, a polite smile coming across her face.

“I was told I would meet with Mr. Chara Dreemurr? My name is Frisk Dreem.” She said gently. The secretary nodded, her eyes seemed to be scanning Frisk’s body – disbelief and annoyance in her eyes, but nevertheless she called the main office. She talked briefly with the secretary outside of Chara’s office, and when she hung up – she looked to be in even more disbelief. 

“Mr. Dreemurr is on the fourteenth floor, his office is off to the left – the door is a maroon color, you won’t miss it.” The secretary managed to choke out. Frisk gave her a bigger smile, thanking her before dashing off to the elevator to escape her questioning gaze. Frisk figured that appearing at the office would be odd since she doesn’t exactly look like a high-class individual – however, she did try to dress in her best clothes before coming here. She was in a purple sweater dress that hung somewhat loosely over her frame, a black long-sleeved cardigan over it along with black heels that donned her feet. She even straightened her hair a little to try to appear cleaner and more professional. 

She quickly pushed the fourteenth button and pressed herself against the back of the elevator as some workers pilled onto it. She studied each of their faces – they all looked happy, and seemed pleased with their jobs. Were they discussing a company vacation that they were taking near the beginning of the year? Frisk was in slight disbelief that he gut ‘could’ be wrong, but nevertheless she still kept her head down as the workers would get off on various floors. Soon enough it was only her on the elevator as it went up to the fourteenth floor.

She felt her stomach drop as she neared the floor – she honestly had no idea, or plan, as to what she would do once she got there to talk to him. She could demand answers, but if she was right, and they were doing illegal business what would that get her? Dead. That is what it would get her. The elevators door opened, and it showed a bright hallway, with various workers sitting at desks before the hallway dipped off on the left and right. She scurried off the elevator when she saw some of them openly staring at her.

Once again, she kept her head down as her heels clicked rapidly against the floor, she swung a left and ran into someone. “Mr. Dreemurr!” A girl said suddenly. Frisk was about to fall over, from being thrown off balance. She expected an impact, but instead she felt an arm wrap around her waist and she looked up – alarmed at the goat monster in front of her. A curious look was on his face as he inspected the young woman he had caught suddenly. Frisk looked back – and soon felt a blush spread her cheeks as she untangled herself from him.

“I am so sorry, sir!” She said, “Are you alright? I wasn’t looking where I was going and I-,”

The goat laughed, and shook his head. “It’s fine, I wasn’t exactly looking where I was going either, dear.” He said and the secretary behind him gave him a wide-eyed look. Perhaps he wasn’t always this forgiving? “We all make mistakes, it’s what makes us humans and monsters after all.” He said with a wave of his hand. He then offered it out to Frisk, who carefully took it – it was soft and warm, which didn’t surprise her as he did have fur. “I’m Asriel Dreemurr, you must be Frisk Dreem, right?” Frisk nodded – to which the goat smiled bigger. “You know you have my brother wrapped around your finger, you know that right?” He asked.

“N-No, I-,” Frisk started stuttering – in all honesty she was about to apologize when Asriel started laughing.

“It’s fine – it’s actually nice to see him like this.” He the let out something that sounded like a hum. “He looks happier.” He said. Frisk was shocked that he had said that and then he waved his hand once more, dismissing a thought that seemed to have crossed his mind. “Nevertheless, I guess I should let you get to him – he seemed surprised that you would be coming here today.” Asriel said. “It was nice meeting you, Frisk.” 

“It was nice meeting you too, Mr. Dreemurr.”

“Call me Asriel, please, Mr. Dreemurr is my father.” Asriel said with a wink. ‘Do those two share the same brain or something?’ Frisk thought to herself as Asriel waved bye to the girl and the secretary gave a goodbye in passing. Frisk stared after the two in disbelief before she started walking back down the hallway – seeing Chara’s office door. She stopped in front of it and knocked, a noise coming from within. Frisk opened the door slightly, to see Chara staring at some papers on his desk. His usually styled hair was disheveled, indicating that he had bene running his hands through his hair frequently and his eyes looked tired. His suit jacket was off, showing a light pink button up that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His charcoal tie was slightly askew, and he looked like he needed a break.

“Chara?” Frisk called quietly. He jumped at her voice, and when his eyes landed on her he gave her a smile. “May I come in?” She asked.

“Yes, please sit.” He said, nodding towards the chair that was in front of his desk as he began cleaning up the papers that were scattered across his desk. “Sorry, I was overlooking a contract that had gotten faxed over and I was double checking that it contained everything that we had talked about within the previous meeting.” He explained and then finally stopped moving and sat back down in his own chair as Frisk sat in the red chair in front of him. They both stared at one another before Chara decided to open up his mouth. “So, Frisk, I know you’re not here for a pop-in, what is it that I can do for you?” He asked.

Frisk fidgeted with her hands, dipping her nails into her palm as she decided on what to say. “I…” She paused and then closed her eyes, and opened them again – looking back up at Chara to see him staring intently at her. “I just came to stop by and…give you my number.” She lied – shocked that was what had came out of her mouth. Chara raised a brow at what she had said – he clearly didn’t believe the lie that she had told. “I mean, Daryl hasn’t been responding to my text messages – so I suppose that’s his way of saying that the date didn’t go well.” She said quickly once again.

That was backwards, Daryl had been texting her – calling her too, and she had been trying to get answers out of him, but he wouldn’t ever spill the secrets that she wanted to hear – he seemed to be lying, and hard. For whatever reason, she wasn’t sure – so she was going to be trying a new tactic: “Date” Chara and try to get information out about what the business entailed. Hopefully by then, she could overturn the information and proof to the authorities to have their business shut down. That is, if the police officers weren’t paid off to allow them to continue doing what they were doing.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Frisk.” Chara said, an unreadable look entering his eyes as he said that. “However, if you want a break from dating before we ever date – I completely understand, I don’t want to rush you.” He said.

“No, it’s fine.” Frisk said with a wave of a hand, “I don’t mind – besides, dating is about getting out there and trying to find the person you’re supposed to be with, right?” Frisk was hoping that he would take the bait. He needed to in order for her plan, while currently with no clear direction and utterly terrible, to work. She needed to gain his trust so that he would open up to her and tell her the complete truth. “I mean, if you found someone else that you’re dating, I understand too.” She said while batting her eyelashes. She had picked up a few tricks to get heavier tips at the diner whenever she needed them.

“N-No, that’s not what…” Chara took a breath, a slight blush crossing his face as he looked off to the side. “I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you – how about tomorrow night?” He asked and Frisk nodded, happily. The quicker the better, in her opinion. The two exchanged numbers, and Frisk actually stuck around to talk to him some more about pleasantries and the like, before his secretary called him. He looked slightly annoyed on the phone with her. “Alright, send them up – I was about to go get lunch, but it’ll be fine.” He said with a sigh.

“Oh shoot, I’ve kept you for too long.” Frisk said, but she didn’t really mean it. Chara just waved his hand dismissively. “I supposed that I should get going too.” She said and stood up, Chara following suit, escorting her to the door. “Anyways, it was nice catching up with you, Chara – I look forward to tomorrow night.” She said with a smile. Chara returned the smile, and opened the door and on the other side was three skeletons that looked at the pair in shock.

“IT’S THE WAITRESS FROM THE DINER, BROTHER! THE ONE THAT GAVE ME THE SPAGHETTI RECIPE!” Papyrus said happily as his grin seemed to have stretched wider. Sans and the other skeleton’s eyes landed on Frisk’s form and she felt herself froze. They were doing business with Chara – and that left a bad taste in Frisk’s mouth. Sans was about to open up his mouth to say something but Frisk looked off to the side.

“Excuse me, but I have to go.” She said and looked down at the ground and quickly went around the three skeletons – feeling their eyes on her as she turned the corner and went back to the elevator. She thought Sans was a good guy – that his brothers were decent people and could be trusted. She thought that they could be friends, but now? Now that she knew he was doing business with Chara? Someone who seemed so fake and unpredictable doing business with the skeleton brothers? She felt tears slide down her cheek as she cursed at herself mentally.

She was wrong.


End file.
